The Board of Trustees of Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire (VNH) have voted to approve an affiliation agreement with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health. With the May 24 vote, VNH will become an affiliate of Dartmouth-Hitchcock, effective July 1.
VNH, the region's largest provider of home health services, will become the first home health and hospice provider affiliate of Dartmouth-Hitchcock, which also includes five hospital affiliates.
The affiliation is designed to improve healthcare for the communities served by facilitating collaboration, innovation, and cost efficiencies between Dartmouth-Hitchcock and VNH, according to a news release.
The VNH Board approval marks the end of a process that started in late 2014 with discussions between the two organizations, culminating in an affiliation that will foster a close working relationship.
According to VNH President and CEO Jeanne McLaughlin, the affiliation will enhance clinical integration, resulting in a seamless path for patients moving from hospital care to home.
“We've always worked well with Dartmouth-Hitchcock,” McLaughlin said in the news release, “and as an affiliate, our care continuums will be even better, helping us to improve transitions from hospital to home and avoid unnecessary re-hospitalizations that reduce quality of life and increase costs.”
“A key element in the sustainable health system we are working to create is finding ways to deliver care in settings that are more comfortable and convenient for patients and their families,” Dartmouth-Hitchcock CEO and President Dr. James N. Weinstein said in the news release. “Through community-based care and remote monitoring, we want to keep people healthy and out of the hospital.”
McLaughlin explained that VNH, as a Dartmouth-Hitchcock affiliate, will continue its existing relationships with municipalities and other hospitals and health care providers and will remain a nonprofit organization responsible for its own operating performance, relying on support from the towns it serves and the generosity of donors committed to VNH's mission.
VNH will also work closely with Dartmouth-Hitchcock on the planned Center for Palliative and Hospice Care, scheduled for groundbreaking on the Dartmouth-Hitchcock campus later this month.
“We look forward to sharing our expertise in hospice care,” McLaughlin said, “to ensure that the Center positively transforms end-of-life experiences for patients and their families, with an array of services in a state-of-the-art facility.”