The hospital-at-home model is a promising program to deliver treatment and care to patients outside of the hospital vicinity. The hospital-at-home enables patients to receive effective acute-level care in the comfort of their homes.

Benefits of the Hospital-at-Home Model

The innovative care model has helped older patients receive high-quality hospital-level care in their homes. The hospital-at-home has the following advantages:

  • Improves health outcome levels.
  • Improves patient safety.
  • Decreases healthcare costs.
  • Enhance the patient experience.
  • Propel patient satisfaction scores.

COVID-19 and Hospital-at-Home Programs

The concept of offering acute care for patients at home has not been a new one. The model has been around since the mid-2000s. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, this care delivery model was widely embraced by providers when hospitals were overburdened with patients.

The in-person constraints due to the pandemic caused the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to launch the Acute Hospital Care At Home program. This program aimed to expand the hospital’s ability to offer care for patients in their homes.

Healthcare Technology and Hospital-at-Home Model

Virtual care technologies and solutions support an effective hospital-at-home program. Patients are given Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) tools so they can automatically connect to the command center. The RPM tools transmit real-time patient data to the command center.

The providers through Telemedicine EMR Software contact the patients virtually. The virtual sessions help healthcare providers identify post-discharge requirements and ensure that no acute medical issues are surfacing.

Implementation Challenges of Hospital-at-Home

There are various hurdles to implementing a hospital-at-home program. Among the major challenges are:

  1. Infrastructure and Technology: An extensive technological infrastructure, comprising tools and software for remote monitoring and patient-provider contact, is needed to set up a hospital-at-home program. This may come at a high cost and necessitate careful planning and cooperation.
  2. Staffing and Training: Hospital-at-home programs demand the use of a specialized team of healthcare workers, including nurses, physicians, and other specialists trained in in-home care and remote monitoring. Hiring and training such a team can be difficult because it requires the recruitment of skilled personnel as well as continuing education to guarantee that they are up to speed on the newest technologies and practices.
  3. Patient Selection: Choosing the right patients for a hospital-at-home program is important to the program’s success. Patients must meet certain criteria, such as the severity of their condition, their capacity to adhere to the program, and their living situation. This requires rigorous screening and evaluation by healthcare providers.
  4. Reimbursement: Payment for hospital-at-home programs can be difficult since they sometimes fall outside of typical healthcare reimbursement structures. To ensure that the program is financially feasible, it may be necessary to negotiate with payers and devise new payment arrangements.
  5. Legal and Regulatory Issues: A variety of legal and regulatory criteria, including licensure, accreditation, and liability difficulties, must be met by hospital-at-home programs.

How to overcome hospital-at-home program implementation hurdles?

To overcome the implementation hurdles of a hospital-at-home program, healthcare organizations can take the following steps:

  1. Create a clear implementation strategy: Prepare a detailed implementation plan that outlines the objectives, targets, timetables, and resources needed to successfully launch a hospital-at-home program.
  2. Invest in technology and infrastructure: To enable remote monitoring and communication between patients and healthcare providers, hospital-at-home programs rely on modern technology and infrastructure. Investing in dependable and efficient technology will aid in the smooth and efficient operation of the program.
  3. Recruit and train staff: Specialized teams of healthcare professionals with experience in in-home care and remote monitoring are needed for hospital-at-home programs. Healthcare organizations should concentrate on assembling and educating a group of qualified specialists who can offer high-quality patient care.
  4. Identify the right patients: The effectiveness of a hospital-at-home program depends on selecting the proper patients. Patients should undergo thorough screening and evaluation to ascertain whether they are eligible for the program
  5. Address reimbursement issues: Healthcare providers should collaborate with payers to create innovative payment structures and bargain program-appropriate reimbursement rates.
  6. Monitor and evaluate program performance: Healthcare organizations must monitor and evaluate the hospital-at-home program’s performance. This will help identify areas for improvement and ensure that the program is meeting its financial and clinical goals.

Healthcare organizations can successfully create a hospital-at-home program that offers patients high-quality care in their homes by following these proactive steps.