For thousands of Tennesseans each year, recovery is just the beginning of their post-discharge journey. Especially for those without housing, the challenges of healing after an illness or surgery can be daunting. Even the basics of healing—filling a prescription, attending a follow-up visit, staying hydrated—can become impossible. Traditional care systems don’t always reach these patients. Vanderbilt University Medical Center is working to change that.

Through an innovative outreach effort led by VUMC’s Emergency Department and Homeless Health Services, doctors take to the streets each week, making rounds outside the hospital, checking in on recently discharged patients without a place to live. On foot and by car, they track down recently discharged patients across Nashville, from shelters to encampments, offering follow-ups, medication support, and a consistent medical presence.

“They don’t have access to clean water. They don’t have access to the normal things that we would expect in the healing process,” said Dr. Chase Palisch, an emergency physician who leads the weekly outreach rounds.

But no matter where they are, all are people who deserve continuity in care, dignity, and the chance to heal fully.

For patients like Jermaine Thomas, who spent a month at Vanderbilt recovering from heart issues, the difference the program has made is life-changing. In the meantime, he’s staying at the Nashville Rescue Mission while working toward permanent housing and knowing that someone is looking out for him.

And the impact doesn’t stop there. Vanderbilt treats over 2,000 unhoused patients each year — and thanks to this program, that care doesn’t stop at the hospital doors. It follows patients home, whatever “home” looks like right now.

Because everyone deserves to heal with dignity. And everyone deserves a path forward.

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