What if you could get hospital care at home?

The Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine and Public Health have developed an innovative care model that allows qualified patients with particular conditions to check into their own bed for their hospital care. Called Hospital at Home, this new way of delivering care is available in some communities to patients with certain types of pneumonia, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cellulitis, who would otherwise have to be hospitalized for treatment. Doctors and nurses provide both diagnostic tests and treatment therapies to patients at home.

Hospital at Home is designed to work for any hospital or care facility that meets certain criteria. And, it is intended to address the risks of treating acutely ill older adults in hospital, where they all too often experience adverse events, such as hospital-acquired infections, as a result of compromised immune systems.

More studies need to be undertaken to understand the full benefits of the Hospital at Home model. But, in an initial study, researchers found that patients getting hospital care at home spent fewer days “in hospital,” and were less costly to treat. Care met quality standards similar to those in hospital. And, some evidence also showed that people experienced fewer complications.