NJ Health System Launches Hospital-at-Home Program

Hackensack Meridian Health has established a hospital-at-home program at JFK University Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey.

The program will enable the hospital to provide acute care for Medicare patients in their own homes. Patients with diagnoses that result in frequent and expensive readmissions to hospitals, such as uncomplicated congestive heart failure, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cellulitis, will be able to receive care through the program.

Initially, JFK University Medical Center will admit a few hospital-at-home patients a week and provide them with two nursing visits every day; medications delivered to the home, including infusions; and rehabilitation visits. The program includes remote patient monitoring to track oxygen levels, blood pressure, heart rate, weight, and temperature.

"Healthcare continues to expand beyond the walls of the hospital, and this new program will help us advance strategies to improve outcomes and patient satisfaction while making care more affordable,'' said Robert C. Garrett, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health, in the news release.

In addition, health system leaders expect the program will help address social determinants of health. For example, the hospital can provide nutritious meals and other home health support to patients who need it.

The program also eliminates the need for transportation, a critical access barrier to seeking healthcare.

"A major strategic priority of the network is to help reduce inequality in care delivery," Garrett said.

The new hospital-at-home program was established through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Acute Hospital Care at Home program. Created in 2020, the CMS program gives participating hospitals the ability to treat certain acute care patients at home through telehealth and remote patient monitoring, thereby freeing up hospital beds for potential surges of COVID-19 patients.

As of Feb. 3, CMS has approved 91 health systems, with 201 hospitals across 34 states, to participate in the Acute Hospital Care at Home program.

If the hospital-at-home program at JFK University Medical Center is successful, Hackensack Meridian Health plans to expand it to the 16 other hospitals in its system.

The program's launch comes as Americans express greater interest in home-based care. A survey conducted last August by Morning Consult on behalf of the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare found that 85 percent of 2,200 U.S. adults said it is essential to increase the flexibility of at-home healthcare options.

Alongside this rising interest from patients, providers have made a concerted effort to expand home healthcare, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic that constrained inpatient capacity.

Health systems like Jefferson Health, Penn State Health, and UCI Health all launched home care programs in the past few months in partnership with technology vendors or home health companies.

Further, major health systems, including Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, Geisinger Health System, and Johns Hopkins Medicine, launched a coalition to back strategies supporting hospital-level care at home.

In May 2021, Kaiser Permanente and Mayo Clinic invested $100 million in Medically Home, a company they partner with to operate acute care-at-home programs. Last month, the health systems joined a $110 million funding round for the company, though their contributions to the round were not disclosed.