Bringing Hospital Care to the Home
<p>The prospect of a hospital stay can be upsetting, particularly for frail older patients. It means separation from the people, pets, and familiar surroundings that create a feeling of safety and comfort, and it means the disruption of treasured routines. Hospitalization also presents a heightened risk of infections, delirium, functional decline, and even death.</p><p>The fourth profile in our ongoing series on care delivery models for high-need, high-cost patients describes the Hospital at Home program at Presbyterian Healthcare Services in Albuquerque, N.M. In the program, which originated at Johns Hopkins University, teams of physicians, nurses, and other clinical staff make house calls to treat elderly patients, providing hospital-level care at home for conditions that can be safely treated there.</p>
<p>For some patients, this approach has yielded superior outcomes compared to hospital care—and at a lower cost. Hear stories from the clinicians, administrators, and patients who make the program work and learn about the challenges to spreading the program more broadly.</p>