Visiting Nurse Association Health Group and Visiting Physician Services Combine to Form Innovative Model of Home-Based Primary Care

On Nov 14, 2014

Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) Health Group, Red Bank, and Visiting Physician Services announce they are joining forces to better serve older and disabled people in New Jersey who need health care at home. The combined organization will become New Jersey’s largest provider of comprehensive home-based primary care and will be the first time in the state that a visiting nurse association will operate a visiting physician service company.

The combination will join Visiting Physician Services’ team of nearly 30 doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants with VNA Health Group’s more than 1,200 clinical staff of nurses, doctors, rehabilitation therapists, social workers, nutritionists and certified home health aides. The combined organization will provide an advanced home care model that will deliver high quality home-based health care services while helping to lower overall medical costs by avoiding unnecessary hospitalization and institutionalization.

“We are bringing together the time-tested sensibilities of physician house calls and visiting nurses to create an even stronger team to help low mobility patients stay healthy at home. We believe home care services, supported by enhanced care coordination and mobile and digital information technology are the future of health care,” said Steven Landers, MD, MPH, President and Chief Executive Officer of Visiting Nurse Association Health Group.

“Based on our 20-year history, we are confident that the house call delivery model provides patients with superior outcomes, improved satisfaction and notable cost-efficiencies.  By joining VNA Health Group, we can now expand this service, both in terms of reach and resources, to care for the tens of thousands of frail and elderly residents throughout New Jersey, who rightly deserve this benefit,” said Jon Salisbury, MD, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Visiting Physician Services.

Advanced home based care models have become one of the fastest growing sectors in health care driven by health financing challenges, a dramatic increase in the older adult population, a move to more patient- centered care, and an explosion of new mobile and digital health technology.

Recent studies suggest that home-based primary care services for patients who are on Medicare can save taxpayers nearly 20% by reducing unnecessary hospital readmissions. Further, data show that patients are overwhelmingly satisfied with health care services they receive at home.

Chronically ill adults and frail elderly with activity limitations could benefit the most from home-based primary care, allowing them to remain independent while lowering overall health costs and improving outcomes.

VNA Health Group is New Jersey’s largest not-for-profit provider of home health, hospice, palliative and community-based care through its existing partnership model with health systems to operate VNA of Central Jersey, Cape VNA, Robert Wood Johnson Visiting Nurses, and VNA of Englewood. VNA Health Group serves more than 112,000 annually and touches some 5,000 lives on any given day.

Prior to joining VNA Health Group in 2012, Dr. Landers led primary care services to homebound frail elderly who could not otherwise access regular medical care while at Case Western Reserve and Cleveland Clinic. In

2009, Dr. Landers was named Physician of the Year by the National Association for Home Care and Hospice.

Dr. Salisbury founded Visiting Physician Services in 1994 and has grown the practice to serve patients in Ocean, Monmouth, Middlesex, Somerset, Union, Essex, Passaic and Bergen Counties. Currently Visiting Physician Services cares for more than 3,000 patients and conducts over 30,000 house calls annually. Dr. Salisbury was named the 2001 Physician of the Year by the American Academy of Home Care Physicians.

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