Some Details about Hospital-at-Home (HaH) Services for Selected ER Patients

In a recent note, I discussed the question of whether hospitals are becoming obsolete (see: Are Hospitals Becoming Obsolete; Consequences for Pathology and the Labs). I believe that the answer to this question is partly true with some supporting evidence provided by the emergence of"bedless hospitals." They are being built primarily to provide ambulatory care services, clinical labs, radiology, operating rooms, and telemedicine (see, for example:The Design of Bedless Hospitals Continue to Evolve Based on Cost and Technology;Some Additional Ideas About the Bedless Hospitals of the Future). These ideas were running through my mind when I read a recent article about establishing a Hosital-at-Home (HaH) program (see:Why I Believe in Hospital at Home). Below is an excerpt from it:....Hospital at Home (HaH) [is] an [excellent] option for some patients with community-acquired pneumonia, exacerbations of heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cellulitis, and (recently) other conditions.....A candidate for HaH is usually identified in the emergency department, where an ED physician deems the patient sick enough to warrant inpatient admission....The patient must meet validated clinical-appropriateness criteria for HaH and have housing where care can be provided safely.Common reasons to deem a patient inappropriate for HaH are uncorrectable hypoxemia...and ischemic chest pain....However, having multiple chronic conditions and living alone are...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Innovations Hospital Financial Quality of Care Telemedicine Source Type: blogs