LifeBridge Health Announces Creation of Post-Acute Physician Partners

Baltimore, MD- LifeBridge Health, one of the largest and most comprehensive health care systems in the state of Maryland, announces the launch of its newest joint venture: Post-Acute Physician Partners, LLC (PAPP). PAPP will focus on providing high quality and efficient health care for patients who have left an acute-care hospital to continue their recovery at home or at another facility, such as a rehabilitation center or nursing home.

"When a patient moves from one facility to another or from the hospital to home, there can be challenges with continuity in that patient's care, ranging from managing medications to understanding a person's complete medical history. Through the creation of PAPP, we aim to decrease or eliminate these all-to-common issues during transitions in care, which we know to be pivotal times in a person's recovery," says Larry Foxwell, president of PAPP.

PAPP's goal will be to provide continuity of care from the acute care hospital setting to the home with high quality medical supervision all along the way. The organization is currently developing a roster of highly-skilled primary care and specialty physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants who will specialize exclusively in the care of the people who have left the hospital, a field of medicine known as post-acute care.

PAPP follows the Post-Acute Care Hospitalist model or "PACH," where medical professionals spend their full time providing services in post- acute locations. It is much like the concept of a hospital-based physician - the hospitalist - employing the same specialization and care in the post-acute environment.

"Many post-acute facilities have a traditional medical staff model where physicians or other health practitioners may not always be available when needed and who only visit the facilities on a routine basis. Patients, once admitted, may not be seen by their provider for several days and may face complications and have to go to the emergency room or be re-admitted to the hospital. For patients returning home after a hospital stay, they may need to go back to the hospital or wait for an appointment with their personal physician if they have a health concern. PAPP offers a new way to manage those transitions. Our network of health care providers will focus solely on post-acute medicine, offering oversight as well as greater availability to patients and facilities," explains Foxwell.

PAPP is developing its network in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. PAPP will work with physicians (primary and specialty), physician extenders (such as physicians' assistants and nurse practitioners), hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies and long-term, assisted and independent care organizations to manage and provide high quality and efficient medical care for post-acute patients.

The first facility to use the PAPP network will be LifeBridge Health's Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital. PAPP is the brainchild of Foxwell and Brian White, senior vice president of LifeBridge Health and president of Northwest Hospital. White also oversees the post-acute division for LifeBridge Health, which includes Levindale, a 365-bed chronic care hospital and the 39-bed sub-acute unit at Northwest Hospital.

"As the president of an acute care hospital, as well as the senior vice president of LifeBridge Health's post-