Empath Health is making investments in its workspaces and technology to improve patient care and the employee experience.

As part of this initiative, the nonprofit recently sold one of its service center locations, an administrative office, located in Pinellas County, Florida. The center was initially established by Suncoast Hospice, which is now an Empath Health affiliate. The sale is part of Empath’s effort to “realign its physical footprint” to invest more directly in home-based, patient-centered care, according to a statement from the organization.

Empath is also working to update its physical locations to enhance the workspace for employees.

“Some of this workspace design that we’re doing is innovative. We’ve invested in common workplace environments. We have quiet rooms, where people can go and focus on rest, relaxation and ease in the middle of the day. We leave your laptops, leave your phones out of that room,” Fleece told Hospice News. “We’ve invested in common kitchen areas and gathering places that are like a workplace cafe, with coffee, lounge chairs, TVs and things like that, so people can get together and socialize while they are in the office.”

Florida-based Empath Health is the parent company of 17 affiliates and four philanthropic foundations. The organization provides care to more than 81,000 patients annually. The nonprofit’s Full Life Care model includes hospice, home health care, palliative care, bereavement, adult day and primary care services, advance care planning, HIV and sexual health services, and pharmacy and medical equipment assistance.

Additional services include a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) and dementia education and caregiving support through Empath’ Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) program.

A second component of this initiative is enhancing staff’s ability to work remotely, be it from their homes or on the road visiting patients. This includes the deployment of laptops, cell phones and tablets, in addition to video conferencing systems and Microsoft Board Rooms, among other applications to support remote work.

Empath is collaborating with communications company AT&T (NYSE: T) to increase and speed up remote connectivity, both audio, video and other digital communications, as well as data transfer. These systems are also being enhanced to ensure better connectivity during events such as hurricanes that occur in the region, according to Fleece. The organization is also investing in a common EMR across its footprint and cloud-based information storage. 

“We are putting more data, digital capabilities and technology into the hands of our colleagues that support home-based care across all of hospice and home health,” Fleece said. “We are pretty much moved to the cloud, so we don’t need data centers anymore. We need innovation and technology partners that can help maintain that in the cloud or at their locations for cyber security protection, but also to make sure that it’s redundant, and out of harm’s way in these hurricanes.”