A History of Success

According to Dr. Nhue Ho, President, and CEO of Total Care, today, healthcare is witnessing a massive transformation—the transition from quantity care to quality care. Before, doctor compensation was tied to the number of patients or visits rather than patient health outcomes. Now, doctors get paid more if a patient does well and less if the patient doesn’t do as well. The best form of delivering care is providing it for the patient 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at a low cost. An example is concierge medicine, where patients pay a doctor a flat fee for 24-hour care. “For us, our motto is concierge medicine without the cost for the patient. We use technologies like telemedicine and remote patient monitoring to give the same level of care as concierge medicine at a fraction of the cost for the patient,” explains Dr. Nhue Ho. “With this level of care and attention, we prevent readmissions and provide patients a heightened level of security.”

Total Care 2U is a localized medical practice run by doctors dedicated to supplying comprehensive primary care to chronic and transitional patients in the comfort of their homes. Total Care 2U coordinates with hospitalists, assisted living, independent living, and CCRCs. Dr. Nhue Ho founded Cor Physicians and Total Care 2U to take patient care to the next level. After obtaining his Bachelor of Science from MIT biology, Dr. Ho graduated from George Washington University medical school. He completed his residency in internal medicine at UTMB in Galveston, after which he served four years at Nellis Air Force Base. He then spent two years as an assistant professor of medicine at Willford Hall. Dr. Nhue Ho founded Conroe Diagnostic Associates, building it into a successful hospitalist practice, and served as the regional medical director for Hospitalist Management Group (HMG), overseeing hospitalist teams in multiple states.

Partnering with the Best

Total Care 2U partners with doctors and facilities to create a patient-centered care network for seniors with chronic conditions and diseases. Each Total Care Team (TCT) comprises experienced primary care physicians and hand-selected nurse practitioners. Total Care 2U cares about servicing the aging population and improving clinical outcomes. “With digital transformations, our system has become more efficient and less prone to mistakes. Communicating with tertiary care providers is a lot easier and faster,” elucidates Dr. Nhue Ho. “By having everything from notes to orders online, there are fewer misunderstandings compared to a system based on handwritten documents. On top of that, patients have access to more information than before. Through our patient portal website, they can look at the medical records that they previously could not access.”

Today In-home chronic care produces better outcomes for patients while providing greater security. “An important thing to note is that our patients are very sick and old but can’t leave the house to visit a doctor. So, we serve them as their primary care doctor in the home,” adds the pioneering leader. “By doing this, we have continuity of care. Typically, information is lost as a patient is moved from setting to setting. This means a primary care doctor wouldn’t know everything if a patient moves to a skilled nurse facility or the hospital. For us though, we know everything that happens to a patient from setting to setting so we can provide the best quality of care.”

Total Care 2U’s hospitalist-led team provides chronic and post-acute care at skilled nursing, assisted living, and CCRC facilities. A localized “neighborhood” of physician support creates a comprehensive care environment for seniors with chronic issues. Quality scores, better patient outcomes, and patient satisfaction are increased for facilities using Total Care 2U services.

Brilliant Services

TC2U has partnered with Electronic Care Giver (ECG) to provide a way for the doctors to monitor patients in between visits. At no cost to the patient, a scale, blood pressure monitor, oximeter, glucometer and central hub are sent to patients.  All the devices are connected to the central hub, which connects to the internet through its own cell tower connection. When a patient takes any vital statistic reading, the results are automatically updated to a portal, which is monitored 24/7 by TC2U staff. If a patient has a reading outside the normal parameters, the TC2U doctor is notified immediately so that the issue can be addressed. The central hub also allows patients to call the doctor 24/7. The central hub can act as a speaker phone so that the patient and doctor can have a call to discuss any issues that a patient may have. In the case of an emergency, the central hub can also be used to contact 911.

TotalCare2U also uses telemedicine to allow their doctors to examine patients remotely. TotalCare2U sends field staff to patients home where the field staff will use Vsee to host their telemedicine visit(s).  Vsee, who also partnered with NASA to developed communication software for communicating with the international space station, created a HIPAA compliant software that not only allows a patient and doctor to see and speak to each other remotely, it also allows the doctor to examine the patient as if they were in the same room. TotalCare2U’s field staff uses an electronic stethoscope to let the doctor listen to the patient’s heart & lungs during the examination.

Medication adherence greatly affects patient outcomes for seniors dealing with chronic issues. Under the guidance of a Total Care Team, patients are educated and encouraged every month ensuring better prescription management. Changes, updates, or reminders are reviewed by their expert team and direct-shipped compliance packaging removes the need for the over-saturation of bottles, pill boxes or trips to the pharmacy.

Towards the Future

The company is collectively working towards its goal to ensure everyone who comes to them is aware of and has access to services and supports that will improve their health and quality of life.

“This comes down to proper, extensive communication with the patient. When a doctor sees a patient for the first time, they introduce the patient to their services,” says Dr. Nhue Ho. “A nurse then calls the patient the day after to make sure they’re ok and re-educates them on available services. “Touching” patients by calling them once a day the first five days is key in ensuring that they are aware of the services and supports available to them.”

One goal Dr. Nhue Ho and his team is working towards is mobile urgent care services where they send urgent care to patients if needed. “We provide them with immediate care when they have an issue, not hours later. A huge mission of ours is also saving costs for Medicare in serving patients. Right now, Medicare is losing a lot of money due to the amount of money spent on each patient,” adds Dr. Nhue Ho. “We want to reduce these costs so Medicare can survive. This happens by improving patient health outcomes to reduce unnecessary visits, readmissions to hospitals, and required emergency services. A way this can be executed is taking care of patients in the home rather than the hospital if they qualify.”

Dr. Nhue Ho states, “At the end of the day, we are in a service industry and the patient’s health is our top priority. We believe in providing concierge medicine to all while saving costs for both the patient and Medicare. We like to think of ourselves as the Chick-Fil-A of medicine. To us, customer service and successful patient health outcomes come above all.”