Why the Hospital of the Future will be your Own Home?
It is not a surprising fact that people don’t like to go to hospitals. Is it due to the excessive bills? Is it due to the fear of the unknown? Well, it’s all of the above and moreover, people sometimes have to travel a lot of miles to get access to quality healthcare. Access to hospital care is a big issue for people especially in rural areas and countries that are sparsely populated.
Dr Covinsky, a clinical researcher at the University of California, said that one-third of the patients over 70 and more than half of the patients over 85 leave the hospital more disabled than when they came in. According to statistics in the US (urban area), the median travel distance to the nearest high volume hospital is 7.6 miles, and for the rural area, it’s 31.1 miles. People avoid going to hospitals because of these long distances. Wouldn’t it be nicer if the care comes to your home? Wouldn’t it be nice if you are treated at the convenience of your own bed?
Healthcare at your doorsteps is a newly emerging concept where doctors and physicians use portable and compact medical devices to treat patients in their home. These devices help them to check blood pressure, sugar level, and even ECG just by the click of a button. The presence of such advanced technology in the market helps patients to avoid going to the hospital for small tests. There are caregivers and health coaches who can come to your doorstep to administer medical drugs and to take test samples. Now, elderly people can get the treatment at the comfort of their home, with no need for them to travel for hours to get treated. According to statistics, there are more than 617 million seniors (people over the age of 65) in the world today, and with 10,000 more becoming elderly every day, there is an increasing demand for exceptional at-home health care.
Who is benefited by at-home health care services?
Majority of the people believe that at-home healthcare is for those who are bedridden due to their illness, but there are various other reasons why people need at-home health care like:
- Not being able to go to the hospital due to a previous injury.
- Patients who are advised bed-rest by their physicians, and
- Patients who do not have a mode of transport to reach hospitals.
These are just a few reasons out of the many for why patients require at-home health care for the best treatment available. These individuals require specialized care including nursing, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. The main advantages of at-home healthcare are-
Advantages of at-home healthcare
- Comfort: The main benefit of at-home health care is that patients get to stay at their own home which is comfortable and familiar to them giving them a mental as well as a physical comfort.
- Personalized care: Homecare is flexible and adapts to what fits for the patient, letting them have a schedule that suits them best.
- One-on-one attention: At-home healthcare allows patients to get complete and focused attention from their caregiver.
- Cost-effectiveness: At-home healthcare is usually charged on an hourly basis, which is significantly lower as compared to a residential nursing facility.
At-home healthcare eradicates patient’s travelling time and helps them spend quality time doing what they love, it saves them a lot of money and helps them recover quicker in a comfortable environment. It has an unprecedented advantage for patients and with advancing technologies it is now possible to make at-home care accessible to more people around the world. NHCT offers this via their Health Coaches. NHCT Health Coaches assess an individual’s health using point of care diagnostics. They are registered medical and wellness practitioners and are the first level of data validators within the NHCT ecosystem. The result of their health assessment is a color-coded health report that allows users to seek appropriate care and develop a continuous plan.
