Bringing the Hospital Home

There’s no place like home, and Mount Sinai Health System’s Hospital at Home program shows it with 7% fewer readmissions and two fewer hospital days for patients who received care from home, rather than in a standard unit.

When a patient arrives at the ED, information in Epic helps a trained triage team assess whether her condition is stable and can be treated from home with full acute care. Clinicians care for the patient in her home daily and document progress in Epic just as they would in an inpatient unit. After the patient is discharged and no longer needs visits, a clinician follows up during the 30-day post-acute period to ensure that she’s recovering well.

The Hospital at Home program began with a three-year CMS grant, and a CMS committee recommended reimbursement for similar programs last fall in light of Mount Sinai’s success.

“When you compare the patient treated in a hospital versus the home, the improvements are overwhelmingly positive…[in] clinical outcomes, patient safety, patient satisfaction, and cost savings,” says Dr. Albert Siu, chair emeritus of the geriatrics and palliative medicine department at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine.

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