Vree Health Launches TransitionAdvantage™ To Help Hospitals Reduce Readmissions

Post-Discharge Service Extends Hospitals' Resources to Avoid Readmission Penalties and Improve Patients' Care Transitions from Hospital to Home

NORTH WALES, Pa., Sept. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Vree Health™, a company dedicated to helping hospitals improve care transitions, today announced the launch of TransitionAdvantage™, a post-discharge service designed to help hospitals reduce preventable 30-day readmissions and improve quality of care. The TransitionAdvantage service is designed to help patients who were hospitalized for heart attacks, heart failure or pneumonia to adhere to the hospital's recommended post-discharge care plan, and to help hospitals and other healthcare providers identify potential health issues before they become urgent and costly. The service seeks to accomplish this through a combination of high-touch human interaction with patients as well as web and mobile technology.

TransitionAdvantage fills identified gaps in healthcare delivery by targeting four primary causes of hospital readmissions—incomplete patient handoff and visibility with patients' private physicians, lack of follow-up, medication management issues, and lack of care coordination post-discharge. Research shows that addressing these four pillars is an effective approach to reducing hospital readmissions.(i - xi) TransitionAdvantage's integrated suite of capabilities addresses each challenge while enabling hospitals to provide a scalable approach to transitional care that provides individual attention for each patient.

"Hospitals are facing competing priorities to adapt to the new healthcare landscape, making it difficult for many of these institutions to allocate resources to address the challenge of readmissions, particularly once patients transition back to their homes," said Michelle Mosolgo, general manager, Vree Health. "Vree Health partners with hospitals to align with their current processes and technology to help them reduce readmission rates by giving patients and caregivers confidence and support."  

TransitionAdvantage's post-discharge service enables hospitals to improve patients' transitional care through:

• A Transition Liaison—a daily health coach who begins assisting patients before they leave the hospital to reduce the burden of navigating the healthcare system and following discharge care instructions. The Transition Liaison engages personally with patients during daily phone calls to monitor adherence with any prescribed medications and log vital signs. The Transition Liaison also facilitates care coordination, for example scheduling an appointment with the patient's primary care physician within the first week of leaving the hospital. 
• 24/7 access to a nurse hotline—patients and caregivers have access to licensed nurses who can explain instructions, discuss concerns, answer questions about discharge plans or elevate health issues to the patient's medical team.
• Scalable digital communication tools—a flexible, cloud-based Electronic Patient Profile is updated daily and provides transparent communication across providers and family caregivers. Web and mobile applications help further engage patients and improve communication.

According to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, one in five Medicare patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of leaving. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid is implementing new penalties beginning October 2012, which will impact hospitals with the highest readmission rates for patients with heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia. Proposed penalties for hospital readmissions may cause even well-performing institutions to lose millions of dollars.   

A pilot version of TransitionAdvantage is currently in use at three hospitals where an outcomes research study is being conducted. The service is available through Vree Health's hospital partner program and full commercial implementations are planned for early 2013.

About Vree Health
Vree Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., is dedicated to developing technology-enabled services that address the needs of patients, family caregivers, hospitals, and other healthcare providers. The company's flagship service, TransitionAdvantage, is designed to help hospitals reduce readmissions and improve quality of care and patient satisfaction by guiding and supporting each patient through the difficult transition from hospital to recovery at home. For more information, visit www.vreehealth.com.

About Merck
Today's Merck is a global healthcare leader working to help the world be well. Merck is known as MSD outside the United States and Canada. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, and consumer care and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to healthcare through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Forward-Looking Statement
This website includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may include, but are not limited to, statements about the benefits of the merger between Merck and Schering-Plough, including future financial and operating results, the combined company's plans, objectives, expectations and intentions and other statements that are not historical facts. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of Merck's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements: the possibility that all of the expected synergies from the merger of Merck and Schering-Plough will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; Merck's ability to accurately predict future market conditions; dependence on the effectiveness of Merck's patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation and/or regulatory actions.

Merck undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in Merck's 2011 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC's Internet site (www.sec.gov).    

i.  Jencks S, Williams M, Coleman EA. Rehospitalizations among patients in the Medicare fee-for-service program. N Engl J Med. 2009;360(14):1418–1428.

ii. Society of Hospital Medicine. BOOSTing (Better Outcomes for Older adults through Safe Transitions) Care Transitions Resource Room. http://www.hospitalmedicine.org/ResourceRoomRedesign/RR_CareTransitions/CT_Home.cfm. Published 2008. Accessed April 12, 2012.

iii. Boston University Medical Center. Project RED (Re-Engineered Discharge). http://www.bu.edu/fammed/projectred. Published 2007. Accessed April 12, 2012.

iv. Chiu WK, Newcomer R. A systematic review of nurse-assisted case management to improve hospital discharge transition outcomes for the elderly. Prof Case Manag. 2007;12(6):330–336.

v.Kripalani S, LeFevre F, Phillips CO, et al. Deficits in communication and information transfer between hospital-based and primary care physicians: implications for patient safety and continuity of care. JAMA. 2007;297(8):831–841.

vi. Coleman EA, Parry C, Chalmers S, et al. The care transitions intervention: results of a randomized controlled trial. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166(17):1822–1828.

vii. Coleman EA, Smith JD, Frank JC, et al. Preparing patients and caregivers to participate in care delivered across settings: the care transitions intervention. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2004;52(11):1817–1825.

viii. Birmingham J. Discharge planning: a collaboration between provider and payer case managers using Medicare's Conditions of Participation. Lippincotts Case Manag. 2004;9(3):147–151.

ix.  Coleman EA, Boult C. Improving the quality of transitional care for persons with complex care needs. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2003;51(4):556–557.

x. Kohn LT, Corrigan JM, Donaldson MS, eds; Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, Institute of Medicine. To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 2000.

xi. Naylor MD, Brooten D, Campbell R, et al. Comprehensive discharge planning and home follow-up of hospitalized elders: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 1999;281(7):613–620.

SOURCE Vree Health