Barnabas, VNA Health Group form home-health alliance

Barnabas Health, New Jersey's largest hospital system, and the Visiting Nurse Association Health Group have decided to partner on their journey toward a major health care reform destination: keeping patients healthy at home so they'll spend less time in hospitals and other care facilities.

Barnabas Health Home Care and Hospice and the VNA Health Group said the goal of their partnership is "improving the quality and efficiency of post-acute care, home care and hospice in the communities they serve."

Dr. Steven H. Landers, chief executive of VNA Health Group, said the partnership with Barnabas, which he expects to become final in six to 12 months, will be similar to VNA's existing hospital joint ventures with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, and Cape Regional Medical Center.

"This partnership with Barnabas Health is an opportunity to grow as an independent community agency while closely collaborating with a leading health system," Landers said.

Keith L. Boroch, chief executive of Barnabas Health Home Care and Hospice, said Barnabas had been exploring various strategies for expanding its home care services. He said Medicare and commercial health plans want hospitals to "move toward providing much more of a link to home and community-based care models, to reduce (hospital) readmissions and to improve quality of care."

Boroch said Barnabas Health provides home care to an average of 1,700 people daily and provides hospice care to about 400 people daily.

VNA Health Group provides home care to about 7,000 patients daily. - Beth Fitzgerald