SAN DIEGO – Palomar Health is partnering with Kara Health to expand its continuum of care, further allowing patients to receive world-class healthcare in their own community and home through a new joint venture – Palomar Health Palliative & Hospice Care.
Palliative care provides specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness such as cancer or heart failure. Hospice care focuses on the care, comfort, and quality of life of a person with a serious illness who is in the last six months of life.
Through this new partnership, Palomar Health Palliative & Hospice Care allows patients to stay within the Palomar Health family when dealing with serious illness. As a result, patients will benefit from more effective pain and symptom management through greater coordination and collaboration between patients’ clinical teams in all settings, from inpatient to outpatient to home.
“This joint venture shows Palomar Health’s commitment to providing dignified care through end of life to our communities,” Palomar Health Chief Operations Officer Sheila Brown said. “Palliative and hospice care will allow our family members to live or pass in comfort and care within the walls of their own home.”
With a growing need for palliative and hospice care in the region as a larger population reaches older age, Palomar Health decided to partner with Kara Health based on Kara’s excellent track record providing similar services in other communities. According to the U.S. Census Bureau and MedPAC, the senior population will double by 2050 but hospice services are utilized by less than 50% of people who would benefit from it. Through this new service, a market assessment predicts this joint venture will serve more than 1,000 people in the first year.
“We are very excited about this partnership with Palomar Health and the opportunity to positively impact so many patients who are dealing with serious illness,” says Kara Health founder & CEO, Devan Walia. “Palomar and Kara share a commitment to putting patients first and leveraging technology to improve the patient experience.”
Named by Newsweek as one of the World’s Best Hospitals in 2021, Palomar Health is anchored by two medical center campuses, which provide an array of acute care services, obstetrics, rehabilitation, behavioral health, pediatrics and neonatal intensive care. For more information on Palomar Health, please visit PalomarHealth.org.
About Palomar Health
Established in 1948, the award-winning team at Palomar Health provides the most comprehensive healthcare in North San Diego County through its two medical centers and more than 900 affiliated medical providers serving more than half a million people. Palomar Health is San Diego County’s only member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network and is nationally recognized as operating one of America’s 250 Best Hospitals; a Best 100 Hospital for joint replacement and orthopedic surgery; a Best Hospital for stroke care, heart care and bariatric surgery; a Diabetes and Stroke Center of Excellence; and a Blue Distinction Center for spine surgery, cardiac care and maternity.
Through its network of providers, Palomar Health offers medical services in virtually all fields of medicine, including primary care, cardiovascular care, emergency services, trauma, cancer, orthopedics, women’s health, behavioral health, rehabilitation, robotic surgery and bariatric surgery at offices strategically located throughout the North San Diego County region. For more information, please visit PalomarHealth.org.
About Kara Health
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Kara Health is a tech-enabled homecare company that specializes in palliative and hospice care. Kara partners with health systems, government agencies, health plans, and physician organizations looking to leverage technology and homecare to improve outcomes for the highest-risk population of patients. Kara’s mission is to provide great patient care, a great patient experience, and be invaluable assets to its partners.
Kara Health looks for opportunities to leverage big data to maximize the number of patients served and automation to shift administrative expenses to investment in clinical services. Kara’s proprietary technology in patient engagement (Kara PETM), care delivery logistics (Kara F&DTM), and clinical services (Kara PathwaysTM) improves patient outcomes and generates significant cost-savings and returns for patients, providers, and payers. To learn more, please visit kara.health.
