Dartmouth Health and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in New Hampshire has received a transformative $20 million donation from Richard “Dick” Levy, PhD, a distinguished 1960 Dartmouth alumnus, former biotech executive, and dedicated philanthropist, according to a news release.
This gift will fund the launch of Dartmouth Health at Home, a collaborative initiative co-led by Dartmouth Health and Geisel that brings together experts from both institutions. The program’s goal is to revolutionize rural healthcare by expanding access, improving patient outcomes, and elevating the experience for patients and their families through a safe and effective shift of care from hospital to home.
The concept for Dartmouth Health at Home began with The Susan & Richard Levy Health Care Delivery Incubator, announced in 2020 with a gift from the Levys. Through that funding, more than 156 ideas were put forth, and the Incubator funded 22 projects, most sharing a common theme: giving patients quality care, and caregivers quality support, where they wanted it most—at home.
This became personal for Dick Levy when his wife was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disease, and he became her main caregiver. Susan Levy died in 2023, after 59 years of marriage to Dick.
“I learned first-hand that what Dartmouth Health was already doing through the Incubator was exactly what I needed at home,” Levy said. “It was clear that not only can we do a better job for patients and their families by keeping them at home, but we can also reduce costs for hospitals and make them more efficient and effective. It is absolutely the right thing to do.”
Dartmouth Health at Home will create a suite of coordinated home services, including: primary and palliative care at home; the creation of a Family Caregiver Institute at Dartmouth Health, which will provide hands-on caregiver training, resource navigation assistance, as well as access to home care aides; and a formal coordination framework across Dartmouth Health and Geisel.
Additionally, Dartmouth Health at Home will leverage interdisciplinary healthcare delivery design, organization, financing, and evaluation expertise from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, which will both ensure the program’s long-term sustainability and generate a model that can be scaled nationally.
“Thanks to Dick Levy’s philanthropy, patients accessing care and services through Dartmouth Health at Home will receive high-quality care at home, where most people prefer to be treated, while recognizing the vital role family caregivers play in a patient’s treatment and longevity,” said Joanne M. Conroy, MD, president and CEO of Dartmouth Health. “Thoughtful and tangible caregiver support is an essential component of the patient-centered care that we have long believed is the best way to serve our aging, rural population. Dartmouth Health at Home’s programs will provide a much-needed, supportive solution for caregivers and their loved ones here in northern New England, while also serving as a case study and scalable model for a new era of healthcare for our aging or chronically ill population nationwide.”
“We know people often want to age at home, but it isn’t always clear how to help them do that successfully. Dick Levy’s generous gift will fund the programs and technology caregivers and patients need,” said Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock, PhD. “It’s part of Dartmouth’s commitment to our community and to leading innovation in rural healthcare, and it’s a real opportunity to create a model for other health systems.”
“There is a well-deserved reputation here at Dartmouth as a place where successful models are created, then quickly gain adoption nationwide, and this is especially true in healthcare delivery and education,” said Jennifer Hunt, MD, MEd, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s chief academic officer and dean of Geisel. “This gift allows us to uphold our status as a transformational leader in healthcare delivery, while preparing the next generation of clinicians who will be navigating care for our aging population.”
The creation of the Family Caregiver Institute is especially important to Levy. Eventually, as his wife’s illness progressed, he said he was fortunate to have the means to find resources for assistance and respite as Susan’s primary caregiver. However, he recognizes this is a luxury currently unavailable to many caregivers.
“The data are very clear: caregiving for a loved one leads to poor health outcomes for the caregiver. These caregivers are often exhausted and struggling in extraordinarily difficult situations, including at home with their own medical conditions,” said Nathan E. Goldstein, MD, chair of Dartmouth Health’s department of medicine, who notes that 20% of older adults live in rural areas, posing even greater healthcare delivery challenges. “As the nation’s most rural academic medical system, Dartmouth Health has a unique opportunity to lead a home healthcare revolution. The programs Dartmouth and Dartmouth Health will be able to develop through Dartmouth Health at Home will change that for those members of our community.”
Learn more at dartmouth-health.org/at-home.
