‘Patient-friendly’ Home Hospital program provides quality acute care
In March 2024, the Home Hospital team at Yale New Haven Health marked a milestone by caring for its 1,000th patient. That patient, Debbi Kinell, knew of the program since her mother had been one of the program’s first patients shortly after it was launched in 2022. “My mother has benefited from the Home Hospital program twice now, and the care she received was wonderful,” Kinell observed.
Yale New Haven Health’s Home Hospital program serves patients “meeting certain clinical and social criterial” and living within 25 miles of Yale New Haven or Bridgeport hospitals. On the first day of admission to the program, a patient is transported to their home from the hospital emergency department or inpatient unit. Medical equipment, technology kit installation, IV therapies and other medications are provided, as needed, and delivered to the patient’s home. The patient also receives a visit from a nurse the first day.
Patient care at home continues with in-person nurse visits, video visits with physicians, lab tests, and other visits and tests. The program offers 24/7 clinician oversight, daily RN care coordination, meals and nutrition, medical supplies, interpreter services and more. Home health aides, EKG specialists, physical therapists and occupational therapists also deliver care if needed, and the team works with each patient’s primary care physician.
Once a patient is well enough to be discharged from the Home Hospital program, the care team works with the PCP for a seamless transition.
“Since the program’s inception in 2022, we have shown that patients can receive the same quality of care in their homes, that we can do it safely, consistently and with increased patient satisfaction,” said Carly Brown, M.D., senior medical director, clinical operations, and Home Hospital medical director.
Kinell agreed: “The way the nurses and doctors made all the arrangements from the transportation home, getting all the equipment set up — it was just so easy. It could not have been a more patient-friendly program.”