How Health Systems Should Be Preparing Now for the Future of Hospital at Home

Telehealth proved its mettle this past year. Now more hospitals and health systems are looking to expand their efforts beyond video visit-based virtual care and push for expanded remote patient monitoring programs – up to and including the provision of acute care at home.

But the fact that these ideas are even being discussed points to how far the conversation has shifted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hospital at home is really the goal of delivering acute care level services in the home. So I tend to look at things like chronic care management as the target for RPM, where the tool is the driver.

When health systems are going to go about looking at the hospital at home specifically, that acute care wrapper, there's a specific analysis of what populations are clinically appropriate and the financial implications and economic viability of moving those populations.