Last September, the post-acute providers Empath Health and Trustbridge signed a memorandum of understanding to begin an affiliation process. On Monday, that affiliation process was completed, forming the largest nonprofit post-acute provider organization in the state of Florida.
Together, the organization will care for 5,000 patients daily and employ more than 5,000 staff members and 3,000 volunteers.
“We certainly have some exciting operational opportunities to elevate all of our organizations through efficiencies and best practices and just high standardization marks that we’re setting ourselves to from an operations perspective,” Empath President and CEO Jonathan Fleece told Home Health Care News’ sister site Hospice News.
The Clearwater, Florida-based Empath Health provides hospice, home health care, palliative care, grief services, Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), adult day services, primary care, physician services and more. It is the parent company of 17 affiliates and two philanthropic foundations.
The West Palm Beach-based Trustbridge provides palliative care, hospice care, support services, pharmacy services and durable medical equipment.
Moving forward, home health care will be a focal point of the combined organization, Fleece said.
“Empath is super excited to bring more of our Full Life Care services to the east coast [of Florida],” he said. “Home health is high on the priority list, as are our PACE programs.”
Fleece told Hospice News that discussions with Trustbridge actually began in late 2022. Ultimately, a recognition of synergies between the two companies – culturally and operationally – brought on further conversations, eventually resulting in a deal.
“Trustbridge is excited to join with Empath Health, combining our expertise and resources to enhance the quality of care for patients and families throughout Florida,” Tarrah Lowry, interim president of Trustbridge and now COO of Empath Health, said in a statement.
Moving forward, Trustbridge will keep its branding for its legacy hospice operations. Most everything else will begin sharing brand names with the larger, combined organization.
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