Dispatchhealth, Saint Francis Health System Launch New Hospital-at-home Program

As part of their joint venture, DispatchHealth and Saint Francis Health System have launched a new hospital-at-home program.

The model is designed to either substitute an entire hospital stay or part of a hospital stay, allowing patients to recover in their own home. Both sides of the venture aim to expand the program to provide more hospital-level care at home for rural and underserved areas.

“For us, it’s a way to expand access for this new level of care at a really low capital investment in comparison to new bed towers – which we’re also opening and expanding for those that need to be transferred in from the region for a higher level of care, while at the same time extending our mission into the home for those that really don’t necessarily need to be in the brick and mortar setting,” Meg Zacks, senior vice president and chief strategy officer for Saint Francis Health System, told Home Health Care News. “So for us [it’s] an opportunity to grow, improve outcomes and ultimately improve the health of eastern Oklahoma, and the total cost of care to serve that population.”

Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Saint Francis is a Catholic, not-for-profit health system with over 12,000 employees.

The opt-in hospital-at-home program is currently staffed to treat five to six patients, with plans to grow. Two Saint Francis campuses are involved in the program, and on any given day, roughly 30 to 50 patients would be eligible for hospital-level care at home, and the model’s virtual unit was built to be able to handle approximately 40 patients.

As part of the program, workers explain how hospital-level care at home works, assist with transportation to patients’ homes, set up technology that enables 24/7 communication with their care teams and provide in-person care in patients’ homes.

“We are sending teams to home at minimum twice daily, but in some cases, much more than that, to deliver and assess that treatment and how their response to treatment is going,” Pippa Shulman, chief medical officer of hospital-at-home operator DispatchHealth, told HHCN. “And if patients need extra support for personal care, we can also provide that as well. Patients are offered meals, so all the things that you would get in the brick and mortar hospital, you get in the comfort and safety of your own home, where people really want to heal.”

DispatchHealth is among the most prominent providers of hospital-at-home services. Founded in 2013, the company provides care across 20 states. In June 2025, the provider merged with Medically Home, another major hospital-at-home player. Following the merger, DispatchHealth restructured its operations, laying off some workers, exiting one market and changing service offerings in nine others.

The clinical care for hospital-at-home services is the same for facility-based care, Shulman said, but it requires that clinicians know how to take care of patients in the home. When expanding to a new market, DispatchHealth works to ensure the care ecosystem works seamlessly.

“We are really excited to partner with St Francis Health, because of the opportunity for patients in rural and underserved areas,” Shulman said. “I believe that we’ll be able to expand with Saint Francis as they’re getting experience in the model, and as patients are getting used to this kind of care. It may require us to come up with new ways that we are expanding to more far-flung areas.”

These new methods could include workforce considerations that enable whole care teams to operate in rural environments, Shulman said.

The program is initially focused on a 20-mile radius around the Tulsa metro area, which equates to a 30-minute drive for medical teams to visit patients’ homes.

In the long term, Saint Francis sees an opportunity to expand the program to provide hospital-at-home services in rural communities.

“We have 60% of our patients that come from outside of Tulsa County that could potentially be able to receive this level of care in their local community,” Zacks said. “But that would be a long-term vision for us.”

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