Acute Hospital-at-Home Holds Promise for Hospitals Facing Staffing Shortages

While the United States continues to wrestle with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing remains clear: the hospital staffing shortage is persistent. Press Ganey reports that 30% of RNs are at risk of leaving their organization. At the same time, 71.6 million baby boomers face health problems associated with aging. Analysts fear there will be too many patients for the system and not enough available nurses to manage their care.

The “Hospital at Home” (HAH) care delivery model may be one of the actions hospitals and health systems can take to alleviate some of the stress these shortages are putting on our already strained healthcare system. By making acute hospital-level care available to adults in their homes through dedicated paramedics and physicians, hospitals can free up some nurses to care for the most critically ill on-site, improve patient outcomes and increase patient satisfaction.