HealthTech November 27, 2023
A federal waiver during the public health emergency allowed many healthcare organizations to stand up services that ultimately improved patient outcomes.
At hundreds of hospitals across the U.S., patients now have a choice: heal onsite or at home.
“When we offer our home hospital option to patients admitted in our hospital who meet safety criteria, about 70 percent of people say yes and 30 percent say no,” says Dr. Constantinos Michaelidis, medical director of UMass Memorial Health’s hospital-at-home program.
At-home acute care services are now offered by nearly 300 hospitals and 37 states, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Availability has boomed in recent years, largely due to the federal waiver during the COVID-19 pandemic that allowed...