Hospital house calls cut spending by a third, report says

As a substitute for inpatient care at hospitals, hospital-in-the-home programs could cut governmental healthcare costs by a third, according to a study by Deloitte Access Economics released this month.

Faced with rising healthcare costs and response to consumer preferences, most states and territories in Australia already provide acute, sub-acute, and post-acute care in the home, made possible by portable technology, according to the report. It found that hospital-in-home care was cheaper for all AR-DRGs examined--cellulitis, venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolus, respiratory infection, inflammation, COPD, and knee replacement--and making the switch to hospital separations for those conditions would save the government $108.6 million.

Nursing staff and specialists visit patients at home two or three times a week, similar to the traditional hospital setting, said Hospital in the Home Association president Associate Professor Gideon Caplan in a Canberra Times article.

How does hospital care outside the hospital perform? Critics of the hospital-in-the-home model argue that the approach is ripe for inferior care. According to the report, however, there is no significant difference in mortality rates. The Hospital in the Home Society of Australasia, which commissioned the report, argued hospital care at home reduces risk for infection, reports The Canberra Times. However, studies found that hospital readmission rates for older hospital-in-the-home patients did increase, according to the article.

For more information:
- check out the report (.pdf)
- read the article

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