Markets in Everything: Hospital at Home

"Soon, Dr. Elizabeth Ward was managing a "hospital at home" admission for patient Frank Blondin -- an arrangement allowing him to receive intensive care and medical monitoring in the quiet of his own bedroom. Medical supplies and medications would be delivered as soon as possible.  A nurse would come within the hour, take laboratory samples, and return later that afternoon and in the days to come.  Dr. Ward would check in by phone, visit daily, and help would be available 24/7 if required.

"Hospital at home" programs fundamentally refashion care for chronically ill patients who have acute medical problems -- testing traditional notions of how services should be delivered when people become seriously ill.  Only a handful of such initiatives exist, including the Albuquerque program, run by Presbyterian Healthcare Services, and programs in Portland, Ore., Honolulu, Boise, Idaho, and New Orleans offered through the Veterans Health Administration.

But the concept – which has been adopted in Australia, England, Israel and Canada -- is getting attention here with increased pressure from the national health overhaul to improve the quality of medical care and lower costs. Hospital at home programs do both, according to research led by Dr. Bruce Leff, the director of geriatric health services research at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore who pioneered the concept."

HT: John Goodman via Peter Parlapiano