Tennessee Hospital Launches At-Home Hospital Program

To combat issues surrounding resource availability within hospitals and patient comfort levels, Vanderbilt University Medical Center has unveiled an at-home hospital program that enables clinicians to treat acute medical problems in patients’ homes.

To confirm eligibility for this service, a patient must receive approval from Vanderbilt’s providers. This is based on the conditions of the patient’s home and their diagnosis.

Patients involved in the new program will receive in-person check-ins twice daily; however, remote monitoring of vital signs is constant. A tablet will also be provided to allow patients to engage with their care teams.

The program will initially include five patients, but it is expected to grow.

“Hospital at Home allows patients to receive the same standard of high-quality care that they would normally receive within our hospital walls in the comfort of their own home. Our experienced, multidisciplinary team has thoughtfully worked to deliver comprehensive health care to support our community in this home-based care model,” said Tara Horr, MD, medical director of Vanderbilt’s hospital at home program and an assistant professor of medicine, in the news release.

Further, the members of the hospital-at-home care team are teaming up with those in charge of transportation, food, and equipment, to increase the potential for comprehensive at-home care.

Despite the period of adjustment required to further the success of at-home care, this program aims to increase knowledge of acute medical issues and strategies to treat them in various settings.

The increasing prominence of at-home hospitals within remote patient monitoring (RPM) has led many providers to experiment with these new methods.

RPM was especially beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it allowed patients with the disease to be cared for in an at-home hospital, saving inpatient hospital beds for patients with more severe cases of COVID-19 or other conditions.

Further, the government has increased its support for at-home hospitals. For example, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs is dedicating $1 billion to expand its RPM program.

Not only that, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services established the Acute Hospital Care at Home program in November 2020, which allows participating hospitals to treat certain acute care patients at home through telehealth and RPM.

As a result, providers are investing in hospital-at-home services in droves. Recently, Hackensack Meridian Health implemented one such program at JFK University Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey, which is open to patients with certain conditions. Following future reviews, they plan on increasing the capacity of their at-home care services.