Hello, everyone. My name is Madeleine Ashley with Becker's Healthcare podcast series. Thank you so much for tuning in. Today, I'm thrilled to be joined by Joseph Buchanan, senior vice president of clinical network at Matrix Medical Network. Joe, welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks, Madeleine. Happy to be here, and I appreciate being invited back. Of course. So let's kick things off. Just if you could start with a little bit more about yourself and your current role in
your organization, that'd be great. Sure. Absolutely. So I spent, you know, the early part of my career as a hospice nurse, and I'm board certified as hospice and palliative care clinician. Probably for about the last dozen years or so, I've been in leadership roles leading large clinical teams, like I am today, in organizations that specialize specifically in bringing care into the home.
And, you know, one of the things that's always really excited me is the significant impact that the right leader can have on improving the quality of care that patients receive. You know, I've been with Matrix Medical Network now for just a hair under 2 years, and really being able to leverage my background to implement, you know, best practices and enable what I call the world class care that our clinicians provide, and improve patient outcomes on, like, a large national scale,
is exciting. It's really what makes my heart happy. I don't know if if everyone listening is familiar with Matrix Medical Network, but if not, I'll I'll tell you a little bit about us. We did pioneer the 1st national in home clinical network. And today, we stand as the only independent provider of in home assessment serving people across
the nation. Right? We're an extension of the services that our client partners, you know, health plans, provider groups, you know, at risk organizations provide. And we enhance their benefits, you know, that they provide to to their members by, you know, caring for those individuals where they're most comfortable. And where they're most comfortable is typically wherever they call home. Thank you so much for giving that overview
there, Joe. And to to kinda kick things off, you know, at home and virtual care remain at the forefront of many payer organizations' clinical and growth strategies. This in mind, can can you share, you know, an overview of Matrix Medical Network's approach in this realm and and in your view, what factors or maybe considerations are essential to providing this high quality care for in these settings? Yeah. Absolutely, Madeline. A lot of things are essential, and we can kind of talk through
some of those. But, you know, at at Matrix, our mission really is to partner with people on their journey towards better health. Right? And that means that they're gonna need the support. They're gonna need the education and and the care, you know, that they
need to be able to do that. Now from a clinical standpoint, I think one of the things that's essential is that you have a network that's made up of, you know, health care leaders and professionals who are really committed to to using their clinical skill and their judgment at the point of care, right, to improve the lives of those patients that they see. You know, that's being clinician led,
and that's what we do. You know, being clinician led is, you know, really one of the factors that leads to the high quality care. So, you know, we ensure that our our providers are highly trained, you know, they're experienced, they're board certified, and they're they're employed by our organization. They're w two employees of our organization. So, they're really the eyes and ears of our patient care.
You know, we make sure that we have the technology to facilitate their work, but, you know, it's their experience and their judgment of each individual situation that really prevails in in how they advocate for their patients and how they care for them. You know, because we're in the home, one of the things that I just love and and why I've spent so much of my career in in home care is that when we're in the home, we get to see things other people don't. Right?
And we're able to assess some you know, someone's health in all of its dimensions. You know, we we get to see the real person in their daily environment. And, you know, they're typically, you know, striving to feel better. They're trying to do more. They wanna live a fuller life.
And, you know, we we typically will uncover medical and social gaps in care and and find out what are those incompatibilities that we find when we're in the home, you know, between that person's care plans maybe and and their individual lifestyle or their environment. So I think that's a really important component
of in home care. And and regardless of the situation, you know, our providers will thoroughly document everything they see, and they, obviously, will diagnose acute and chronic and, you know, sometimes transient or even emergent conditions. And, you know, as we keep talking about what's essential to providing that high quality care, you know, anyone that is providing what you would consider high quality care to another person, you know, they have to have that strong
commitment to quality and accuracy. No commitment to do the right thing and and always do things in the right way, and that needs to be unyielding, and there are no exceptions to that rule. The last thing I'll tell you here on the the topic is, you know, quality is essential, and it needs to be built into every single process in an organization. That's something that I've been very dedicated to, Matrix is dedicated to, and and I'll just give you an example.
You know, our processes for things like ensuring coding accuracy. Right? Things that we don't always all think about, but our processes for doing that, you know, they're rigorous and they're relentless and they have to be and they should be. And they establish consistency across the organization, and really provide the best outcomes. You know, we'll then, you know, transparently share all of the information from our visits with our health plans and primary care providers.
And having that structure, and those processes, you know, allows us to do things like maintain a greater than 99% coding accuracy rate over the years. So incredibly important as we talk about what really is truly essential.
And, Joe, you you kind of already touched on, you know, the clinician led approach, but to dive a little deeper here, how does this approach to in home assessments benefit payers' broader aims, you know, to what you were touching on a little bit, patient experience, quality, health equity, and and care access. You could dive deeper here. Yeah. Absolutely. It's it's incredibly important. So, you know, being clinician led means that you really are centered around
that whole person care model. Right? And that's that's the model we have at. You know, it's a comprehensive model. You know, it's it's a home based clinical care kind of model focused on assessing and addressing
all of the patient's needs. Right? So it's not just what you see when someone walks into a provider's office, but it addresses the physical, the emotional, the spiritual, the social, even the environmental needs, so that people can be connected with the right providers and the right resources. You know, one of the things that and, again, I I'll just keep saying how much I love care in the home, because we get to witness things that are
complicated by life situations. Right? We can see obstacles that, you know, maybe can be navigated by providing, you know, access to some practical solutions. You know, we'll get to hear each person's unique story, see what their individual challenges are firsthand. You know, and and that allows us to do certain things. Right?
So in addition to being able to, you know, support someone that might be medically complex, you know, we get to connect people with, you know, pharmacies maybe if they can't get out of the home and they need a mail order. We connect people to food banks, transportation, you know, things like that that aren't always common in a lot of health care settings because, you know, someone's health has a lot of layers, and it's personal to everybody.
You know, we we have the opportunity as well to to spend a lot of time. Right? So no matter how long it takes, one of the goals that that we talk about in the organization and that that all of our clinicians have is that no matter how long it takes, we always, 100% of the time, wanna make sure that people are in a better place when we leave than when we walk through their door.
So these are the things that I mean when I kind of talk about that clinician led, that whole person care model and approach. Right? It's really kind of all of these things and being the bridge between the care teams, insurers, and and the community support resources that people need. So kinda going back to your question, it means the patient experience, you know, the quality care, the improved health equity is addressed and and positively benefits, really, the entire ecosystem.
So that's the patient, the payer, the family, all involved. I could keep going and and talk about this for days. No. Definitely. It's nice to hear some passion here in this area. And, you know, we've talked about, you know, the in home, care and virtual care here. So now let's look towards the future here. How do you anticipate this this world to evolve?
I will tell you, Madeline, I wish I had a crystal ball, but I'm pretty confident that some of the evolution that we're gonna see is that more and more care is gonna shift to the home, and and we all need to really embrace that. You know, there are several reasons. The first is access. It's critical. Right? So there are a lot of people that are not able to get out of their home, either because they're homebound, they don't have reliable transportation. Maybe they are not near a provider's office
that they're comfortable getting to. Right? So access is a big deal. You know? And then, you know, if we're doing these things in the home, there are no waiting rooms. You know? There are no trying to figure out that transportation. And, you know, sad to say, a lot of people ignore their health care because they just don't know how they're gonna get to that doctor's office, or they're afraid of going into that doctor's office.
You know, second, we know more now than we have ever known before about how someone's living situation can affect their health. Right? I remember a few years ago, I went into a patient's home, and and this gentleman was a diabetic, poorly controlled. And when I went in, there were 2 glaring problems.
One, you know, I was able to spend a pretty good amount of time with him, and I found out that besides not understanding diet very well and needing some education there, which he got, he didn't really have a way to store healthy food, nor did he have a way to store his insulin because he had a broken refrigerator and he couldn't afford to get it fixed. So we had to work through that and figure out in this person's unique situation, how do we make these things happen?
If I were to see him in another care setting outside of his home, he probably wouldn't have told me about his refrigerator. I wouldn't have had his insulin, his room temperature insulin in my hand. So that's one of the reasons we need to embrace the shift of providing more care in the home. Home safety, you know, can be a lot more comprehensively evaluated.
Falls, especially in our older population, can can be fatal, you know, and and, you know, being able to look at the home, do a fall risk assessment, and and really assess that environment, can really do a lot to keep someone safe. And there's just so many reasons, why bringing more care into the home should be part of the evolution of health care. Well, thank you so much for sharing
that example, Joe. It's it's so interesting to hear, you know, how some of these patients, you know, might come in to see a provider and and they wouldn't even mention some of these things. And you get into the home and you can really see, you know, what they're working with. You're right. And and, Madeleine, you know, it's it's funny. What, is not uncommon is that when you have someone, that is trying to put their best forward so that they can go to their PCPs
office, for example. That might be the only time that person showered that week and got out of the home, and that might be the only person they saw all week. So they're gonna put their best foot forward, and someone's gonna get to see them on what's gonna look like a good day. But when you actually get to go and see them in their environment, in their true living situation, things might look an awful lot different.
No. So true. Well, Joe, is there anything else that, you know, we didn't cover here today or any additional final thoughts that you might like to share with our listeners? Yeah. I'll, you know, I'll I'll tell you a couple of things. And and you know what's interesting is that so many people don't know what their their health plan provides to them. Right? And I'll I'll tell you a quick story about my mom, if you don't mind.
So 2 years ago, she she reached out to me and she said, you know, someone called her and asked her to schedule an in home wellness assessment with a nurse practitioner. And I said, well, mom, what did you say? And she said, well, I told them no because I've never heard of such a thing. Meanwhile, this is what I I do for a living and have done for many, many years. And I thought to myself, oh, mom, I have failed you as a son. You know, you should absolutely say yes to
an in home assessment. So I explained to her what it was. I explained to her the importance of it, and we called them back, right, and and scheduled a visit. And my mother found it so valuable. Right? So she actually independently without my intervention this year, scheduled her second, annual visit about 2 months ago. And this is why I am so happy that she has done this, and I I wish everybody would. She's been a smoker for about 50 years. Right? And she will not talk to me
about it. Right? She refuses. She has never expressed interest in quitting to me. But she actually discussed her desire to try and quit with the nurse practitioner that came to her to her home, and that NP spent time educating her. Right? And it turns out what was stopping my mom is that she was worried about going on the patch because she heard that the patch could cause heart palpitations.
So the NP actually helped her prepare with questions and what she needed to think about when she met with her PCP. So that NP prepared her for that conversation with her family doctor. Right? So today, she's actually on the patch and, fingers crossed, on her way to being smoke free. The reason I wanted to share this kind of final thought, is really two reasons. You know, I see every day firsthand how valuable in home visits
are. Right? Not just during the course of my work at Matrix, but in this case, in my own family's life. Right? 2nd, we need to do everything possible to ensure that the benefits that people like my mom are enjoying are known to everyone that has these benefits. Right? We've gotta talk about them with a megaphone. Everyone needs to fully understand the power of meeting people where they are and wherever they call home, whether you're a health plan, whether you're a PCP.
This is incredibly important. Right? This nurse practitioner did 2 things. Right? May have very well provided my mom with a pathway to a longer healthier life. Right? All because she was able to sit in my mom's living room where she was comfortable and spend an hour. This visit did a second thing too. Right? This drove my mom to her PCP. So now she had a reason to go to her PCP to
help improve her health. Right? And this is something that we see quite often, and it's incredibly important and a very positive development. Yeah. And, of course, you know, it's nice to hear that, people like yourself, Joe, are championing patients to to to go do this as well, you know, to to to speak to someone. Absolutely. Wonderful. Well, Joe, thank you so much for your time in this wonderful discussion today, and we, of course, wanna thank our podcast sponsor for
this episode, Matrix Medical Network. And you can tune in to more podcasts from from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.