As Part Of A New Deal With Atrium Health, Best Buy Will Provide In-Home Hospital Care

TV and home theater system installations are Best Buy's specialty. Its Geek Squad is currently assisting with the setup of virtual medical rooms.

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The consumer electronics company announced on Tuesday that it has reached a three-year agreement with Atrium Health, a healthcare group with headquarters in North Carolina, to support a hospital-at-home initiative. One of the biggest nonprofit health care organizations in the nation, Advocate Health, includes Atrium Health.

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The Geek Squad at Best Buy will visit patients' homes, install medical equipment that remotely monitor their heart rate, blood oxygen level, or other vitals, and instruct the patient or other family members on how to utilize the gadgets. The information would then be securely distributed to physicians and nurses via Current Health's telemedicine center.

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Midway through February, Best Buy started installing virtual care systems at 10 hospitals in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area. The company stated that it hopes to enroll about 100 patients daily in the program, which would be comparable to a midsized hospital without a physical structure.

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The financial details between Best Buy and Atrium were not made public, but they did state that Atrium would purchase the gadgets from Best Buy and then use Geek Squad service for install and retrieval once the patient was discharged from the hospital. Individuals who have insurance, such as Medicare or Medicaid, will pay Atrium.

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Deborah Di Sanzo, president of Best Buy Health, explained that by delegating setup to the Geek Squad, doctors and nurses are free to concentrate on patients' well-being.

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The relationship between technology and care is now more seamless, she said.

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The hospital-at-home concept is Best Buy's most recent attempt to make health care a more significant source of income. As sales of many other consumer devices slacken, it is expanding into the health care sector.

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Consumers are purchasing fewer expensive and discretionary things as they pay more for food and housing, according to Best Buy, Walmart, and other shops including Target and Walmart. During the early years of the epidemic, many people also purchased or upgraded their computers, smartphones, kitchen appliances, and other comparable things.

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The retailer anticipates a fiscal year-long fall in same-store sales of between 3% and 6%, with the majority of that decline occurring in the first six months.

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Best Buy has purchased three healthcare businesses in the past five years: GreatCall, which produces simple cell phones and connected health devices and offers emergency service services for elderly individuals; Critical Signal Technologies, another senior-focused business; and Current Health, a tech company based in the UK that supports telehealth and remote patient monitoring. As well as selling hearing aids and fitness trackers, Best Buy also offers other health and wellness products.

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CEO Corie Barry stated on an earnings call last week that Best Buy anticipates revenues in its health sector to expand more quickly than the rest of its company this fiscal year.

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But, Di Sanzo pointed out that the at-home care portion of Best Buy's health business is "still very fledgling" and generates "still very tiny" revenue.

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"We want to do this intelligently," she remarked. We're trying to do this right. We want to develop channels that make it easier to receive treatment at home. We want to use empathy and technology to significantly alter how healthcare is provided to patients in their homes.

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According to Dr. Rasu Shrestha, chief innovation & commercialization officer at Atrium Health, the organization's hospital-at-home program was forced to start early in the epidemic when patients suffering from Covid overwhelmed the organization's hospitals and occupied its intensive care units.

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He said that the medical community recognized the program's long-term value and its applicability to patients with various diseases, such as those recovering from cardiac issues, infections, or surgical procedures. According to him, it is less expensive than hospital care and gives patients the chance to heal in the familiar surroundings of home.

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According to Shrestha, the program's patients are in good physical health. After attending the emergency room, some patients are released from the hospital or enter the hospital-at-home program right away.

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According to him, Atrium Health has so far provided hospital care at home for more than 6,300 patients.