Michael Maniaci, MD, who has led Mayo Clinic’s hospital-at-home program for the past five years, plans to join Advocate Health in the same capacity.
In the new role, Dr. Maniaci hopes to expand the care model to more rural and indigent patients, as the Charlotte, N.C.-based, 69-hospital system is one of the nation’s largest. He starts as associate vice president of clinical operations for virtual health and home-based care Jan. 5.
“Success in the decentralized healthcare world will only be obtained by health systems working together and not working in silos,” he told Becker’s. “By moving from Mayo to Advocate, I am trying to act upon those words, linking the two sides of the coin: a healthcare innovator and leader of quality, along with a well-respected massive health system that reaches far into many communities and healthcare deserts.”
He helped build Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic’s acute hospital care at home program to treat 20-25 patients at a time in Florida and up to 10 in Arizona and northwestern Wisconsin. Advocate’s offering has an average daily census of 100-125 patients, mostly in the Charlotte and Winston-Salem, N.C., markets, with a goal to expand to Georgia, Illinois and Wisconsin and possibly Alabama and South Carolina.
“If several large health systems like Advocate are able to take these innovative models and move forward getting care to people who need it the most, we will then finally have the scale that will be the foundation for the regulatory and payer environments needed in this country for decentralized healthcare,” he said.
