Home Health & Hospice Week

Around the nation, hospitals look to provide care beyond their walls.

Hospitals continue their interest in home care, judging by recently announced deals.

In Wisconsin, SSM Health and Inbound Health are partnering to furnish at-home services through SSM Health at Home – Recovery. The collaboration, which has begun at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital – Madison, provides “services traditionally offered in a skilled nursing facility within [patients’] own homes,” SSM Health says in a release.

The program involves daily in-home and virtual visits from physicians, nurses and other clinicians; a digital tablet for “enhanced remote monitoring and round-the-clock assistance from the care team at the push of a button”; and a care coordinator to arrange visits and facilitate team communi­cation, SSM Health details.

Other recently announced hospital programs include:

In North Carolina: Novant Health has launched its new Hospital at Home program in the coastal region, according to press reports. The program includes daily virtual assessments from physicians and 24/7 access to nurses, Winston-Salem-based Novant says on X (formerly Twitter).

In Washington, D.C.: MedStar Health is partnering with DispatchHealth to deliver acute care services in qualifying patients’ homes shortly after their discharge from a MedStar Health emergency department or hospital in Washington, D.C., the health system says in a release. “This at-home acute care service is preventing hospital returns by providing care that can be managed in a patient’s own home, such as medication management,” physician and MedStar chief medical officer for telehealth Ethan Booker says in the release.

In Massachusetts: Boston Medical Center is now offering a Hospital at Home service through its Boston Medical Center Hospital at Home program, it says in a release. The program “is a physician-led, in-home, remote acute care unit that provides around-the-clock patient monitoring, daily physician e-visits, live clinician visits, and on-demand access to a dedicated health team” for conditions including pneumonia, dehydration, and heart failure, BMC says.