Illinois Health System to Offer Hospital-at-Home Care

Blessing Health System in Quincy, Illinois, plans on creating a hospital-at-home program that will provide acute care in the patient's home with the help of health technology company Biofourmis.

Spread out over three different states, Blessing Health System is an integrated rural health system consisting of three hospitals, two physician groups, and a nursing and health sciences college.

Biofourmis is a health technology company that aims to advance software and data science to enhance virtual care.

Blessing Health System will work with Biofourmis to deliver at-home care. The health system intends to use Biofourmis' biosensors and a patient-centric companion app to monitor patients at home. The data from the wearables and electronic patient-reported outcomes will be analyzed by the company's artificial intelligence-driven Biovitals Analytics Engine to establish each patient's baseline. Clinicians will receive real-time notifications about the patient's condition as it changes.

"Although we considered several solutions, Biofourmis offered the most comprehensive, highly scalable and user-friendly solution. We are confident that it will enable us to successfully participate in this program, but more importantly, deliver the high-quality care that our patients expect in the comfort and convenience of their homes,” said Mary Frances Barthel, MD, chief quality and safety officer at Blessing Health System, in the press release.

Biofourmis has previously collaborated with several other healthcare provider organizations to deliver at-home care.

For example, Biofourmis worked with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston to create a home hospital program. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine noted this program reduced hospital admissions and costs.

Bless Health System is deploying its new program through the Rural Home Hospital project, a joint venture of the Harvard T. J. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital that aims to apply lessons learned from hospital-at-home programs launched in urban areas to build a nationwide at-home care program for rural residents.

Many organizations have implemented a hospital-at-home option to serve specific populations in recent years, especially as COVID-19 cases soared, overwhelming hospital capacity throughout the nation.

In February, Vanderbilt University Medical Center began an at-home hospital program to benefit patients and providers. Determining a patient’s eligibility for this service includes evaluating clinical and home safety factors. Patients in the program use a tablet device to contact their care teams.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has also recognized the importance of regulatory flexibilities for at-home care. In 2020, it created the Acute Hospital Care At Home program, which intended to increase hospital capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic.