Connecticut Health System Establishes At-Home Hospital Service

Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS) created an at-home hospital program that aims to provide high-acuity care at home to Medicare patients meeting specific clinical criteria.

YNHHS is a five-hospital system that provides clinical care to Connecticut residents. It is affiliated with Yale University and Yale Medicine, the clinical practice of the Yale School of Medicine. 

As health systems adjusted to the new normal brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, many began establishing hospital-at-home programs to provide advanced care while limiting exposure to the disease in their facilities.

To operate its new program, YNHHS is partnering with a company called Medically Home. Together, they plan to provide at-home hospital care access to those who live within 25 miles of the Yale New Haven and Bridgeport hospitals. They plan to expand to other hospitals in the YNHHS network eventually.

The program, which will provide care for two to six days on average, includes a video visit with a physician daily, in-person visits from a nurse twice daily, and other services such as in-home infusion therapy and echocardiograms from several specialists. Patients will also have access to a service known as 'mission control,' which includes nurses and physicians who will remotely monitor patients and are available 24/7 for assistance.

YNHHS will care for patients with a wide range of conditions through the new program, including heart failure, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cellulitis.

“Many patients prefer to be cared for in their homes,” said Olukemi Akande, MD, physician executive director of post-acute care and home hospital program physician co-lead, in a press release. “With the growth of telehealth and other mobile health technologies, we can provide a high level of care and 24/7 accessibility to these patients.”

In addition to the various clinical benefits of the YNHHS at-home-hospital program, researchers noted that caring for patients remotely reduces the chances of a hospital reaching capacity, allowing for more severely ill patients to fill up hospital beds.

Several healthcare organizations created at-home care programs amid in-person care restrictions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, in February, Vanderbilt University Medical Center created a program that allowed clinicians to provide hospital-level care to patients within their homes. Designed to address the limited availability of resources and improve patient comfort, patients in the program receive twice-daily in-person visits and the consistent remote monitoring of vital signs.

Blessing Health System in Quincy, Illinois, took similar action in March, launching a program providing high acuity care to patients while they remain in their homes. Blessing Health System created the program with the help of health technology company Biofourmis, which provided biosensors and a companion app to monitor patients remotely.