Meet Contessa’s Palliative Care at Home Leadership

As Contessa’s Palliative Care at Home program continues to expand, our industry leaders and their expertise are invaluable to its ongoing success. ?

In January, Nikki Davis, DNP, ACHPN joined as Vice President of Palliative Care Programs. In her role, Nikki oversees strategy and operations for all palliative care lines of business. With 21 years of experience in care delivery across several organizations, she is a board-certified Family and Gerontological Nurse Practitioner and holds a specialty certification in hospice and palliative care. She also continues to teach gerontology and palliative care as an adjunct assistant professor at Emory University.?

In May, Contessa welcomed Dr. Gavin Baumgardner, DO, MHA as Vice President and National Medical Director of Palliative Care at Home. He has over 20 years of experience in healthcare, including inpatient and geriatrics. He also served in hospice as a medical director. Prior to joining Contessa, Dr. Baumgardner most recently held a role as Vice President of Clinical Affairs for OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby hospitals. He has also been a contributor to several medical publications and taught as an associate professor of medicine at the Ohio University College of Medicine.??

He and Nikki will work closely together to partner with interdisciplinary, clinical and operations teams to develop protocols for care delivery and to support the continued growth and design of Contessa’s Palliative Care at Home solutions.??

As the success of the program continues to expand, Dr. Baumgardner shares that he’s excited by the ways in which Palliative Care at Home offers an upstream solution for patients’ health challenges that can otherwise escalate their need for care and symptom management. “Being able to impact patients early on in the spectrum of disease has profound impact on their mental and physical well-being,” Dr. Baumgardner explains. “The real value in palliative care is having discussions with patients, in their homes, before acute events.”?

Dr. Rob Moskowitz, Chief Medical Officer of Contessa, says that the addition of Dr. Baumgardner and Nikki to the Palliative Care at Home team illustrates the quality of the palliative care programs that Contessa is launching in multiple markets, with both health systems and payors. “With the strong leadership of both Dr. Baumgardner and Nikki, we’re looking forward to the continued growth and success of our innovative Palliative Care at Home program,” says Dr. Moskowitz. “Their expertise is invaluable in supporting the guiding principles of high-quality, improved care outcomes that Contessa’s palliative care program has been built on to date.”?