At the Home Hospital program mission control, Lacoya Nichols, RN, is among the clinicians receiving reports on patients’ vital signs and other functions. Mission control staff are available 24/7 for Home Hospital patients, who also receive regular in-person and telehealth visits.
Five months after its launch, Yale New Haven Health’s Home Hospital program has cared for more than 145 patients and counting.
The program provides high-acuity, hospital-level care in patients’ homes through a combination of in-person visits and telehealth technology. It brings a range of hospital services to patients with heart failure, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cellulitis, sepsis and other conditions.
One recent patient was admitted to the Home Hospital program after a fall and an extremely high blood sugar reading. An emergency department visit showed that while the patient’s blood sugar had returned to normal, he had mild pneumonia. The patient spent two days as an inpatient at Yale New Haven Hospital before transitioning to the Home Hospital program.
The program supplied a monitor for telehealth visits and equipment for vital signs and weight monitoring. Results were transmitted to Home Hospital’s mission control, which is staffed by nurses and physicians. The patient also had regular telehealth visits from a Home Hospital physician and in-person visits from a nurse or advanced practice provider (APP). In addition to nurse and APP visits, patients can receive in-home infusion therapy; physical, occupational and speech therapy; phlebotomy; and other services if needed.
“It was great,” said the patient, who was discharged from the program in late November. “It’s much better being home than in the hospital.”
This patient was able to remain at home throughout his treatment in the program, but some patients are transferred back to the ICU or stepdown units in the actual hospital due to a clinical decline requiring a higher level of care, said Stacey Lane, Home Hospital program director of operations and administration. Mission control clinicians are available 24/7 and can initiate a rapid response if patients need emergency services or to be transferred to the hospital. Each patient also has a personal emergency response device.
The Home Hospital program currently serves patients meeting certain clinical and social criteria who live within 25 miles of Yale New Haven and Bridgeport hospitals and have Medicare FFS, the YNHHS employee medical plan, Aetna Managed Medicare or United Healthcare Managed Medicare. YNHHS is negotiating with other insurance companies to cover the program, which is expected to expand to other YNHHS hospitals in the future.
Patients can request the Home Hospital program or be referred by a physician. For more information, visit Home Hospital at ynhhs.org or call 203-850-6494.
