SPOTLIGHT: Hospital-at-home care has come of age

While the idea of providing hospital care at home dates back to the 1960s, it hasn't been widely implemented yet, particularly in the United States. But it's high time that U.S. healthcare providers take a closer look at this approach, particularly given the technology we have available to support remote patients, argues Vince Kuraitis of Better Health Technologies. Not only does home-based hospital care save money, it sidesteps the risk of hospital-acquired infections and keeps the patient comfortable, aiding in their recovery. At minimum, hospital-at-home care can work very well for a subset of elderly patients with complex conditions, he notes. For this model to be implemented, however, physicians would have to change their work patterns, and payers would have to implement new reimbursement structures to address these work patterns, he suggests. Article