How Your Home Will Also Be Your Hospital
In the new Hospital-at-Home model, your home will soon be your hospital too. Why home, you asked? Read here to learn why.
Home Is Where Healthcare Is
There is a change taking place in how people access the healthcare service. That change is the new Hospital-at-Home or the Home Healthcare model. This is a specialty care service that is provided by the hospitals to patients, to receive routine or ongoing care where it is most convenient to them.
In simple terms, a hospital-at-home is a comprehensive, cost-effective, and efficient alternative to traditional hospital care. It is a service that provides community and home-based care that involves patients getting healthcare from the comfort of their homes.
This home healthcare service enables patients to go through a comprehensive medical evaluation and have access to medical services including visits with a nurse and/or doctor, outpatient prescription refills, the opportunity to participate in disease management programs, and other aspects of the healthcare management. The home healthcare services offer, but are not limited to, video consultations, prescriptions delivered to patients, making appointments, home based or virtual physical therapy and rehab, regular monitoring of patient’s health etc.
However, the concept of Hospital-at-Home is not new. It was first introduced in the 1970s as part of the HMO (Health Maintenance Organization). The idea was to provide medical services outside of hospitals to reduce pressure on hospitals which were then overcrowded. The home healthcare model has changed since then due to adoption of digital health technologies like Telemedicine, connected health devices like Apple Watch etc.
It's A No-Brainer
The reason home healthcare models are becoming mainstream is because it just makes SO MUCH SENSE. It makes sense because it provides quantifiable solutions to many problems that have plagued the traditional hospital care system.
Some of these problems are:
- As much as 64% of patients avoid care due to the cost associated with traditional healthcare model.
- Medical professionals are overworked and burned-out.
- Hospital beds are occupied even when almost 50% of such care can be transferred into patients’ homes.
- The continual rise in the healthcare costs, especially in the United States.
- Traditional hospital care has shown to increase anxiety disorder, stress, and depression amongst patients.
- Limited access to healthcare in rural areas.
Both the patients and the providers have been desperately seeking solutions to these and many other problems they face while giving and receiving healthcare.
Parking Is Free & The Food Is Home Cooked
The Hospital-at-Home plan usually begins with a complete medical assessment of the patient, which includes assessing mental and physical health status, as well as other medical conditions if any. Once the patient’s medical assessment is completed, a unique care plan is developed that is tailored to their needs and is intended to improve their physical as well as their emotional well-being by transferring some of the healthcare to the environment they are most comfortable with, their home.
Hospital-at-Home services broadly comes under 3 categories:
- Personal Care: This aims to provide care services like assistance with bathing, grooming, eating etc.
- Companion Care: This kind of care provides help with daily activities and monitoring a patient’s health and wellness.
- Skilled Medical Care: This care provides highly skilled medical professionals like nurses to help with advanced medical needs of the patient.
The home healthcare service is an intricate care plan that ensures the patients are consistently monitored and are receiving appropriate care in a way that improves their overall health and quality of their lives.
In Conclusion
The global home healthcare industry is growing at a rate of almost 10% year over year.
Hospital-at-Home service provides patients with the care and convenience they have always been seeking for. Patients can stay in the comfort of their own home, while still being able to receive high-quality medical care. This high-quality care has been made possible due to the Digital Health technologies.
A larger advantage of home healthcare is that patients do not have to take time from their everyday routine to receive care; but instead, the care is woven into their everyday routine. And when such care is provided in a familiar environment like home, it brings a sense of normality to a patient’s life in a way that they forget about the disease.
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