Welcome again to our limited series, A View from the Summit, featuring in-person interviews conducted at NCQA's first Health Innovation Summit. We continue our ongoing podcast discussions regarding hospital at home with two guests representing Kaiser Permanente. Nobody wants to be in the hospital at all, or no more than necessary. And in a time when open beds are scarce – and medical staff numbers tragically diminished – the concept of “care at home” becomes a necessity.

In this interview, I discussed solutions to inception of Kaiser Permanente’s advanced Care at Home program, which first launched in the Pacific Northwest and California regions in early 2020.

Dr. Mary Giswold is Chief Operating Officer at Northwest Permanente. She leads operations for this physician-led, self-governed, multispecialty group practice, providing care to the more than 620,000 members of Kaiser Permanente in Oregon and southwestern Washington.

Dr. Giswold practices as a general surgeon. Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, Dr. Giswold moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1998 to complete her surgical residency at Oregon Health & Science University and is still calling Portland home. Dr. Giswold is also a firm believer and an expert in the concept of “hospital at home”.

Dr. Stephen Parodi is executive vice president of External Affairs, Communications, and Brand at The Permanente Federation. He is also serves as an associate executive director for The Permanente Medical Group with responsibility for hospital operations, inpatient quality, patient safety, care of complex and special needs populations, skilled nursing facilities, home health, hospice, and advanced analytics. Dr. Parodi practices as an infectious disease physician, providing inpatient and outpatient consultation, HIV care and travel medicine services.