Francisco Garcia used to commute to Los Angeles daily for his job as a supervisor of a janitorial and maintenance department, which required him to be on his feet for hours. But all of that changed when he fell ill with COVID-19 in 2020.

The illness left Garcia in a coma for three weeks and in various hospitals in the Coachella Valley and San Diego for three months. One of his lungs was collapsed, which had him hooked up to a ventilator, and doctors were worried about him possibly having a heart attack as well.

The 53-year-old still gets emotional remembering that difficult time, which included his wife having to decide whether to keep him on medical support. Once his health was on the mend, it took time for his strength to return, recalling it would take three people about 45 minutes to help him sit up in his hospital bed.

“It’s not easy to remember,” he said. “There were very hard moments, very hard days in the hospital. … I don’t wish it upon anyone.”

After he was discharged, the Desert Hot Springs resident was referred to cardiologist/electrophysiologist Dr. Hetal Bhakta at Desert Heart Rhythm Consultants, who recommended he start a nutrition-focused program through Nudj Health. The Pasadena-based company aims to deliver whole-person and continuous care for patients with chronic disease by targeting six lifestyle areas: nutrition, stress management, physical activity, sleep, social support and risky behaviors.

Garcia said he would often feel dizzy, get headaches and experience stomach pains from eating in the past. Since starting the program, he has learned how to balance his meals so that there’s proteins, grains, fruits and vegetables incorporated into each meal, and he has focused on eating fewer sweets. He said he feels “very, very strong” and that he lost nearly 10 pounds.

“I’m very lucky. This program helped me a lot — a lot, a lot,” Garcia said.

Change in lifestyle

Prior to Nudj Health’s founding, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Katie Hill said many of its founders worked for a cardiology company. They could tell how engaged a patient would be in their treatment based on what was going on in their lives. So, if a patient was experiencing a lot of stress, depression or anxiety, Hill said they were less likely to participate.

As a result, they formed Nudj Health with the aim of focusing on mental and behavioral health to help improve cardiovascular disease outcomes as well.

“We help people find behavioral changes they can make in a sustainable way in their own lives that fits with their own cultural history, family traditions, likes and dislikes to move them toward greater health,” Hill said.

Nudj Health’s treatment is based on the collaborative care model, which is described as a patient-centered, team-based approach to managing chronic medical and mental health conditions. The six treatment pathways address the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s essential pillars to improve and maintain cardiovascular health.

Nudj Health partners with referring physicians and essentially acts as an extension of their clinic. Care managers work with patients, via telephone or video visits, to better understand their circumstances, tailor pathways to their lifestyles and monitor their progress.

Patients tackle one of the lifestyle areas at a time at their physician’s recommendation. Each program is individualized, but generally the nutrition pathway is focused on building sustainable and healthy eating habits that gradually move toward a more plant-based and whole-foods diet, while the fitness pathway focuses on a mix of strength training, balance training and aerobic activities, according to the company.

It takes about 12 weeks to complete a program. Hill said they are typically covered by insurance, especially if recommended by a health care provider.

More than 6,000 patients have taken part of Nudj Health’s programs since its founding in 2021, according to the company. Data from a Medicaid cohort enrolled between August to November 2022 showed reductions in blood pressures and improvements in measures of depression, anxiety and insomnia. For example, patients with high blood pressure (greater than 140/90 mm Hg) who were enrolled in remote patient monitoring, which has them closely monitor physical and objective signs of cardiovascular disease, experienced a mean decrease in systolic blood pressure of 1.32 mm Hg and a mean diastolic blood pressure decrease of 0.58 mm Hg per month.

Those who participated in a lifestyle pathway on top of remote patient monitoring saw their systolic blood pressure decrease by 6.98 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure decrease by 3.87 mm Hg.

In general, making positive changes to lifestyle habits have led to better health for a number of people. Getting enough quality sleep can reduce the risk of many diseases and disorders, from heart disease and stroke to obesity and dementia. Exercise and physical activity, which doctors encourage all able patients to do, can improve brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of disease, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve your ability to do everyday activities.

Social connectedness can also improve mental health, and those with stronger social bonds have a 50% increased likelihood of survival than those who have fewer social connections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“By taking good care of those six pillars … you will have a healthy life,” she said.

Bad habits and psychosocial factors often contribute to medical conditions and can worsen them, Bhakta said, but some patients might not truly consider how much they’re impacting them. He was interested in partnering with Nudj Health when he realized its pathways could help them address their health issues beyond medical care.

You can do a bypass surgery and fix the plumbing, but can we prevent that thing from being necessary in the first place? That starts with managing blood pressure, weight, sugar and a lot of those are rooted in our behaviors and habits,” Bhakta said. “If we start correcting those early on, then you don’t need the more aggressive things.”

When he first met Garcia, Bhakta said he was experiencing chest pain, which turned out to be atypical. But the more time he spent with his patient, the more he learned about Garcia’s underlying issues with blood pressure and post-traumatic stress disorder that was related to his COVID-19 diagnosis.

Bhakta recommended the nutrition pathway for Garcia because “that was the root of a lot of his issues,” he said. Since then, Bhakta said Garcia’s blood pressure is “much better controlled.” He added that Garcia would have also benefited from the stress management pathway.

Garcia said his quality of life “better now” since he’s participated in the program, and he’s even taken additional classes to learn more about nutrition and healthy changes he can continue to make.

“It’s something I would recommend to everyone, not only people like me that are sick,” Garcia said. “We need more programs like this.”

How to get connected

If a patient wants to join Nudj Health, they can email info@nudjhealth.com. The company will either connect them with a local participating doctor or explain other options for participation.

Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.

The post Nudj Well being applications goal 6 way of life areas to enhance affected person lives appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

San Francisco agreed to settle the second of three lawsuits related to a shocking patient abuse scandal at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in 2019.

The board of directors on Tuesday approved a $2.2 million settlement for 11 patients then in the city-run facility that cares for San Francisco’s most vulnerable residents.

The lawsuit, filed in May 2021 against the city, its health department, Laguna Honda and unnamed employees, alleges that hospital staff verbally, mentally and physically abused patients at the facility and violated their privacy.

“The scale of the wrongdoing is conscience-shattering,” the complaint said, “and includes towel-gagging one of the plaintiffs, photographing a resident with her shirt pulled up and her breasts exposed, and photographing patients in distress,” among others photographing a resident balled up on the floor, taking one or more photographs of a male plaintiff’s scrotum.”

The staff then texted each other pictures and videos of the abuse, the complaint said, “deliberately causing embarrassment, shame and mockery to the plaintiffs.” The evidence highlights a culture of abuse at Laguna Honda Hospital.”

A 2019 investigation by the state Department of Health accused six workers at the nursing home, which then cared for 780 low-income elderly and disabled residents, of years of abuse of 23 patients. The city’s health department, which operates the facility, acknowledged the alleged abuse and created a corrective plan at the time.

“We believe that given all the circumstances, this is a reasonable resolution,” prosecutors spokeswoman Jen Kwart said Tuesday in a statement on the settlement of the lawsuit. “Laguna Honda Hospital is committed to providing excellent care and treating all residents with dignity.”

The city settled the first of three lawsuits in the case in 2021 for $800,000. A class action lawsuit is pending.

The abuse scandal preceded and is unrelated to Laguna Honda’s recent troubles as the nursing home seeks to improve conditions to maintain its lifeline of federal funding. Regulators revoked his entitlement to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements in April 2022 after inspections revealed drug use among patients and other safety violations.

Federal regulators ordered the hospital to begin discharging patients in the face of a possible closure last summer, but when 12 people died shortly after the discharge, regulators halted operations in July. The hospital recently received a September 19 deadline extension that may have forced it to resume patient transfers as it continues a comprehensive health and safety overhaul.

A court settlement last fall gave Laguna Honda until Nov. 13 to try to qualify for reinstatement of its federal funds.

Reach Mallory Moench: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com

The post San Francisco pays $2 million for second Laguna Honda affected person lawsuit appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — The city of San Francisco announced Thursday that it is suing the federal government over its decision to stop funding Laguna Honda Hospital and force the nursing home to move all patients out of the facility by September. 13.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday against the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Minister Xavier Becerra. It is alleged that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), operating under HHS, have forced the city to implement an unworkable closure and patient transfer plan that is putting them at risk and denying the city’s due process.

In April, CMS terminated Laguna Honda’s participation in its Medicare/Medicaid programs after the hospital was found to be non-compliant with multiple safety inspections, including finding contraband items such as drug paraphernalia on site and failing to comply with hand hygiene, documentation, and infection prevention protocols.

Laguna Honda Hospital

CBS

As a result of the decertification, the hospital lost federal funds that funded more than two-thirds of its services to nearly 700 patients with complex medical needs and low incomes.

The federal government also ordered the facility to reduce its patient population, and the hospital transferred several dozen patients over 10 weeks. At least four patients reportedly died within days of being relocated, including three who were taken to homeless shelters. A total of nine patients died within days or weeks of being transferred or discharged, according to prosecutor David Chiu.

Laguna Honda last week halted referrals for the remaining 600 patients following the deaths.

The complaint alleges that CMS set an arbitrary deadline for patient transfers to September 13 and is asking that it be closed before the city’s appeals can be decided, which could render the transfers unnecessary.

In a press release, Chiu said a second class action lawsuit against the state of California and the federal government, filed by former prosecutor Louise Renne, alleges the closure and transfer process violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and denies patients and their families a proper due Procedure .

“The federal government has placed Laguna Honda and our city in an impossible situation,” Chiu said in a prepared statement. “As the last safety net for many of our most vulnerable San Franciscans, Laguna Honda serves a need too critical to be shut down by an arbitrary, bureaucratic decision. The city has been forced into an unworkable plan of closure and relocation that has done far more harm than good.”

The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief to overturn the September 13 deadline and extend federal funding to Laguna Honda at least until appeals can be decided and all patients can be safely transferred or discharged.

“We are working hard to address issues that have been raised at Laguna Honda and this important work continues,” Mayor London Breed said in a prepared statement. “But closing this facility and forcing residents and families to endure the trauma of transfers should not be part of this process. This facility provides care and support to some of the most vulnerable people in our city, and that support must continue to keep them healthy and safe.”

“For over 150 years, the San Franciscos have relied on Laguna Honda to provide critical care to our most vulnerable,” Renne said in a prepared statement. “We simply cannot allow Laguna Honda to close. The actions of CMS and the California Department of Health and Human Services are illegal, unnecessary and cruel.

Theresa Rutherford, the President-elect of SEIU 1021 and longtime Board Certified Nursing Assistant at Laguna Honda Hospital, released the following statement in response to the lawsuits announcement:

“Laguna Honda Hospital is more than just a hospital, it is a long-term home for many. Keeping patients at Laguna Honda, where they will have one of the most unique and comprehensive care services in this country, must be a priority for us as a community and for elected officials at all levels. We support patients and families campaigning to stop the closure because we know it will save lives.

We understand how stressful and scary the past few months have been for staff and patients alike. Transfer trauma is a real danger to the people we serve, which is why our union is doing everything it can to get Laguna Honda Hospital recertified. We encourage community members to join us by contacting their elected leaders at all levels and asking them to join us.”

In May, Sen. Dianne Feinstein wrote a letter to Becerra asking that CMS’s decision to end Laguna Honda’s participation in its programs and force the relocation of its vulnerable patients be reversed.

“Unless CMS reverses its decision, these patients would be put at risk again if they were transferred to other facilities,” Feinstein said in a statement last month. “This is of particular concern after reports of some patients being sent to homeless shelters that were ill-equipped to provide the necessary medical services.”

The hospital remains open and licensed as it continues to work to rejoin federal programs.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — The city of San Francisco announced Thursday that it’s suing the federal government over its decision to cut off funding to Laguna Honda Hospital and the order forcing the nursing home to transfer all patients out of the facility by Sept. 13.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday against the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Secretary Xavier Becerra. It alleges that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which operates under HHS, forced the City to implement an unworkable closure and patient transfer plan that put them at risk and denies the City due process.

In April, CMS terminated Laguna Honda’s participation in its Medicare/Medicaid programs after the hospital was found out of compliance on multiple safety inspections, including finding contraband like drug paraphernalia on site, and failure to adhere to hand hygiene, documentation and infection prevention protocols.

Laguna Honda Hospital

CBS

As a result of being decertified, the hospital lost federal funding that financed more than two-thirds of its services for nearly 700 patients with complex medical needs and low incomes.

The federal government also directed the facility to wind down its patient population, and the hospital transferred several dozen patients over 10 weeks. At least four patients were reportedly dead within a few days after their relocation, including three that were sent to homeless shelters. A total of nine patients died within days or weeks after transfer or discharge, according to City Attorney David Chiu.

Last week, Laguna Honda maintained transfers for its remaining 600 patients following the deaths.

The complaint alleges the CMS imposed an arbitrary Sept. 13 deadline for patient transfers and required it to close before the city’s appeals could be decided, which might make the transfers unnecessary.

In a press release, Chiu said a second-class-action lawsuit against both the State of California and the federal government filed by former City Attorney Louise Renne alleges the closure and transfer process violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and denies patients and their families due process .

“The federal government has put Laguna Honda and our City in an impossible situation,” said Chiu in a prepared statement. “As the final safety net for many of our most vulnerable San Franciscans, Laguna Honda serves too critical a need to be closed due to an arbitrary, bureaucratic decision. The City has been forced into an unworkable closure and transfer plan that has done far more harm than good.”

The lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to eliminate the Sept. 13 deadline and extend federal funding to Laguna Honda at least until the appeals can be decided and all patients can be safely transferred or discharged.

“We are working hard to address issues that have been raised at Laguna Honda, and that important work will continue,” said Mayor London Breed in a prepared statement. “But closing this facility and forcing residents and families to go through the trauma of transfers should not be part of that process. This facility provides care and support for some of the most vulnerable people in our city, and that support must continue to keep them healthy and safe.”

“For over 150 years, San Franciscans have relied on Laguna Honda to provide critical care to our most vulnerable,” Renne said in a prepared statement. “We simply cannot allow Laguna Honda to close. The actions of CMS and the California Department of Health are illegal, unnecessary, and cruel.

Theresa Rutherford, the President-Elect of the SEIU 1021 and a longtime certified nursing assistant at Laguna Honda Hospital, released the following statement in response to the announcement of the lawsuits:

“Laguna Honda Hospital is more than just a hospital, it is a long-term home for many. Keeping patients at Laguna Honda, where they are provided some of the most unique and comprehensive care available in this country, must be a priority for our community and for elected officials at all levels.We support patients and families who are advocating to help stop the closure because we know it will save lives.

We understand how stressful and scary the last few months have been for workers and patients alike. Transfer trauma is a real danger for the people we care for, which is why our union is doing everything we can to get Laguna Honda Hospital recertified. We encourage community members to join us by contacting their elected leaders at all levels and asking them to stand with us.”

In May, Sen. Dianne Feinstein wrote a letter to Becerra asking to reverse the CMS decision to terminate Laguna Honda’s participation in its programs and force the relocation of its vulnerable patients.

“If CMS does not reverse its decision, these patients would again be put at risk as they’re transferred to other facilities,” Feinstein said in a statement last month. “This is particularly concerning after some patients were reportedly sent to homeless shelters ill-equipped to provide the necessary medical services.”

The hospital remains open and licensed as it continues to work on rejoining the federal programs.

The post San Francisco sues federal authorities over Laguna Honda hospital closure following affected person deaths appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Federal regulators have threatened to pull critical funding from San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital after two patients overdosed at the facility last year, a dramatic measure that could force the hospital to shut down.

Officials with San Francisco’s health department, which runs Laguna Honda, said Wednesday that the hospital had fallen out of regulatory compliance, putting its funding from Medicare and Medicaid in jeopardy. Laguna Honda, one of the largest skilled nursing facilities in the country, is run by the city and cares for more than 700 patients, including people with dementia, drug addiction and other complex medical needs, who live on the hospital’s campus.

The hospital has until April 14 to remedy a number of issues identified by state health officials — including the presence of contraband found on Laguna Honda’s campus — in order to stave off a potential financial calamity that could displace hundreds of medically fragile patients.

State officials said they were working with Laguna Honda to bring the hospital into compliance and avoid closure.

“There’s a commitment from (Department of Public Health) and the city to keep Laguna Honda open,” Roland Pickens, director of the San Francisco Health Network, told The Chronicle. “But it would be very difficult financially to remain open without the reimbursement” payments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Laguna Honda began a correction plan with the California Department of Public Health in October, after state officials found the hospital “in a state of substandard quality of care,” according to a statement from the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

The finding came after staff at Laguna Honda reported two overdoses at the hospital in July, neither of them fatal. Hospital officials disclosed these incidents to the state, adhering to a self-reporting requirement that Laguna Honda implemented in 2019, after a state investigation turned up evidence of patient abuse.

By documenting the overdoses, Laguna Honda triggered an extended survey by the state, which led to the state’s conclusion in October that the hospital had fallen out of compliance. With the correction plan in place, hospital staff had six months to fix deficiencies and enhance safety measures, including steps to eliminate drug paraphernalia or illicit substances from the campus.

Although Pickens and Laguna Honda CEO Michael Phillips said in an interview that the hospital worked diligently to retrain its staff and remind workers to be on the lookout for banned items, state regulators witnessed violations when they inspected the site. In January, state regulators concluded that one hospital worker was not following protocols. This month, inspectors discovered a patient was smoking in a communal bathroom, while another patient on oxygen had a lighter.

On March 22, the state put Laguna Honda in immediate jeopardy for noncompliance with federal regulations and standards, a severe designation that officials lifted five days later after the hospital quickly responded with restrictions on visitors bringing in items and increased safety searches, among other reforms. Laguna Honda officials are contemplating new security infrastructure, such as scanning machines at entrances to screen visitor packages for prohibited materials.

Still, the six-month window is closing for the hospital to substantially finish its corrective plan, while also resolving the problems uncovered at the subsequent site visits.

The looming deadline puts strain on an institution that managed to avert a deadly coronavirus surge in 2020, but is still grappling with the abuse scandal of 2019, which Pickens and Phillips said had no bearing on the current remedial plan. Last year the city agreed to pay $800,000 to settle one of three lawsuits filed by patients alleging they were abused by staff. One of the cases is a class action, involving multiple plaintiffs.

Phillips, the CEO, pointed to the challenges that plague Laguna Honda.

“We care for some of the most vulnerable residents in the city of San Francisco,” he said, many of whom have histories of substance abuse, which may persist as they undergo treatment. Since the hospital is not a locked facility, people can come and go as they please, opening the possibility that they may procure drugs outside and then return to campus, Phillips said.

“Despite our best efforts, illicit substances will eventually find their way onto our campus,” Phillips said. “We’re continuously looking for ways to improve our protocols so that we can find more innovative ways to identify these substances and keep them away from our residents.”

Staff at the hospital struggle to balance patients’ privacy and freedom of movement with the need to sustain a safe environment and take a hard line on illicit substances or materials. Phillips and Pickens said their discussions with regulators have been amicable and collaborative, but that the state is still obliged to follow a process that puts the hospital at risk of shutting down.

“It’s a perfunctory process that was triggered by the October incident,” Pickens said, suggesting that if the state had been quicker to validate all of the hospital’s reforms, “perhaps we wouldn’t be so close to the April 14 deadline.”

Laguna Honda relies on payments from Medi-Cal and Medicaid to fund most of its services, since most patients are low- or extremely-low-income and burdened with complicated medical needs. It was unclear where patients would go if the hospital is unable to stay afloat.

“As you can imagine, there’s a shortage of skilled nursing beds throughout the country,” Pickens said. “California and San Francisco are no exception. It would take quite a while, if it ever came to trying to find new placements for those 700 patients at Laguna.”

He hopes for what he says is a more likely scenario: All agencies collaborate to bring Laguna into compliance by April 14.

In a statement, California Department of Public Health officials said, “Resident and worker safety remains our highest priority, and we continue to coordinate closely with Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, and our local and federal partners to help ensure the facility meets the regulatory requirements to provide safe and appropriate care to all residents and patients,” the statement read.

Phillips contended that, in spite of past missteps, Laguna Honda has done everything it can to earn the public’s trust.

“As you can imagine, there are thousands of interactions with caregivers and patients throughout any given day,” he said. “There are multiple opportunities for bad outcomes. And yet, in the vast majority of cases, there are no bad outcomes. There are just a small handful of these things that happen, and we report them, as we are required to do.”

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan

The post San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital faces potential closure after affected person overdoses set off state assessment appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

NEMS and LUCIDACT logo

North East Medical Services and LucidAct Health partner to provide remote patient monitoring management for some of San Francisco’s most vulnerable seniors

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, June 22, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ – North East Medical Services (NEMS) and LucidAct Health Inc. have teamed up to help manage remote patient monitoring ( RPM). LucidAct’s innovative and linguistically appropriate virtual health care will aim to improve patient outcomes for some of NEMS’s San Francisco seniors with limited English proficiency by making these virtual services available and accessible to seniors from the comfort of their homes.

NEMS, a state-qualified health center based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is partnering with LucidAct Health, a leader in RPM and virtual visiting software based in Silicon Valley, to improve the health and lives of seniors living at the NEMS program for everyone to participate. Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) in San Francisco. NEMS is one of the largest community health centers in the United States, targeting the medically underserved Asian population. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and clinics in San Francisco, Daly City and San Jose, NEMS provides comprehensive healthcare services to over 65,000 patients, most of whom are uninsured, low-income and prefer to be served in a language other than English. Launched in the heart of Chinatown in early 2021, the NEMS PACE program provides low-income, eligible seniors, the majority of whom are dual-eligible, with comprehensive medical and social services for Medicare and Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program). With 90% of their patients identifying as Asian, NEMS and NEMS PACE prioritize the provision of linguistically competent and culturally sensitive healthcare services.

Dr. Jerry Jew, NEMS Chief Strategy Officer, said, “We believe that having a comprehensive system of care for our PACE participants is the key to greater health equity while ensuring the safety and comfort of their home. Through our partnership with LucidAct Health, we can provide the easy-to-use remote supply devices with multi-language capabilities via the 4G / 5G LTE network. ”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual care was a safe alternative to personal care, but access to many of these services remains a challenge for seniors. These challenges were even greater for people with limited English language skills. LucidAct’s RPM management provides seamless and easy-to-use virtual nursing tailored for seniors. LucidAct’s multilingual devices can provide services in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, and other languages ​​as required.

“The NEMS PACE care team is excited to test this innovative technology. Many of our PACE participants face barriers to virtual care with the tools currently available due to advanced and complicated technology that is difficult for seniors to navigate. Our population continues to be challenged by poor English language skills. LucidAct removes both of these obstacles for us, ”said Sharon Raver-Villanueva, Director of the NEMS PACE program. “I’m excited to see how LucidAct’s linguistically proficient RPM management can help improve the health and wellbeing of our participants while providing our care team with the clinical data they need for optimal care.”

The demand for virtual care and care coordination from home has skyrocketed since the pandemic. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) survey[1] 51% of US consumers are concerned about going back to health care facilities. In addition, older patients with language and cultural barriers face additional challenges. These include the lack of access to suitable means of transport, the lack of easy-to-use technology and care teams who cannot converse in their native language

“LuicdAct’s AI technology delivers intelligent real-time data to our vendors,” said Murali Athuluri, NEMS chief information officer. “This is crucial for identifying important trends and highlighting social determinants of health faster than comparable solutions.”

Through this collaboration, NEMS will leverage LucidAct Health’s virtual nursing platform to enable remote monitoring and AI technology to ease the burden on providers of reading large volumes of clinical patient records and the flow of device data. LuicdAct Health will integrate with NEMS ‘EMR system and deliver AI-driven insights directly to providers via FHIR-based APIs, which in turn will increase the quality of care.

“This is an important milestone for LucidAct Health as it allows us to focus on the needs of the growing Medicaid population. The needs of these members are naturally more complex and require a different approach to virtual care and care coordination. We are honored and excited to work with such a leader in the Medicaid space, ”said Grace Chen, Founder and CEO of LucidAct Health Inc.

###

ABOUT NEMS

North East Medical Services (NEMS) is one of the largest nonprofit health centers in the United States serving the medically underserved population of the San Francisco Bay Area. NEMS provides comprehensive healthcare services to a wide variety of patients, most of whom are low-income, have access to Medicaid, and have limited English language skills. NEMS providers and employees provide language-proficient and culturally sensitive services in many languages ​​and dialects other than English, including Cantonese, Mandarin, Toishan, Vietnamese, Burmese, Tagalog, Spanish and Hindi. NEMS operates 12 clinics in San Francisco, Daly City, and San Jose. More information is available at www.nems.org.

ABOUT NEMS PACE

The North East Medical Services Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (NEMS PACE) was launched in San Francisco’s Chinatown in early 2021. PACE is a nationally recognized model of care for older adults with chronic health needs. NEMS PACE provides participants with access to a dedicated care team that works together to develop a comprehensive and personalized care plan to meet the unique medical, social and emotional needs of each participant. More information is available at https://www.nems.org/pace/about.html.

ABOUT LUCIIDACT HEALTH

LucidAct Health is a cloud-based API and software company for virtual care based in Silicon Valley, California. It specializes in developing virtual care and remote monitoring solutions for Medicaid patients that enable them to have equal access to healthcare even when technology is difficult to access. Emerging AI technology is focused on uncovering the social determinants of the health of patients with complex needs, who are usually also most at risk. More information is available at www.lucidact.com

[1] Dunbrack, LA (2020, December). IDC Survey: Prioritizing Safe Access To Supply To Address COVID-19 Concerns Among Consumers. IDC. https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=US46582320.

Grace Chen
LucidAct health
+1 408-677-8895
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