Hospital At Home is an innovative health care model that can provide hospital-level care in a patient’s home as a full substitute for acute hospital care.
To date, Hospital At Home has been developed and tested in the US in a National Demonstration and Evaluation Study, funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation, at sites in Buffalo, New York, Portland, Oregon, and Worcester, Massachusetts. Patients who required hospital admission for community-acquired pneumonia, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (emphysema), and cellulitis were treated in the Hospital At Home.
Hospital At Home patients were identified in a hospital emergency room or ambulatory site and met specific medical eligibility criteria. Following evaluation, patients were taken home and then received hospital-level care at home.
Patients were followed by the same Hospital At Home physician until stable for discharge, at which time care reverted to their primary care physician.
Following the Hospital At Home National Demonstration and Evaluation Study, two of the study’s three sites have continued to provide Hospital At Home Care. The Hospital At Home investigators are now working to disseminate the model into the US health care system.
Photo of Care Level Management Personal Visiting Physician, Copyright 2005 Care Level Management
Photo Copyright 2005 Care Level Management, Personal Visiting Physician
