Photo: Tetra Images/Getty Images
The ongoing government shutdown means that remote monitoring and hospital-at-home programs are facing big challenges and uncertainty at the moment. Without CMS telehealth waivers or promise of retroactive reimbursement, providers and patients are left in the lurch.
But with broad support for hospital-at-home, and with health systems having made major investments in programs of various sizes and shapes over the past few years, the momentum seems too good to stall out for such a promising mode of care. It's time to figure out a long-term and lasting way to support H@H success.
One health system that's proven the value of hospital-at-home is New Jersey-based Virtua Health. In this episode – the first of a three-part series – we speak to the health system's Chief Information Officer Thomas F. Gordon, alongside his colleague Michael Capriotti, Virtua's president of advanced care operations and logistics.
They offer an up-close and detailed look at how they got started with acute care remote monitoring, during the pandemic, and quickly realized it was something they needed to scale up. They describe what works and what doesn't, and explain how they're continuing to build out and refine the program to drive efficiencies while expanding home-care options for patients. Be sure to tune in next week for part two of this series.
This episode is brought to you by athenahealth.
Like what you hear? Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Amazon Music.
Talking points:
- The current shape and scope of hospital-at-home at Virtua Health
- How the program started amid the COVID-19 telehealth boom
- How it became apparent that it should be scaled up in earnest
- Early goals
- Must-have technologies
- Which patient populations are the best fit for this approach
- What H@H has meant for cost savings, outcomes, capacity, patient satisfaction
- How the program was built out
- Staffing and change management
- What providers and patients think about it.
More about this episode:
Patients and providers face telehealth cliff as government shutdown begins
The government shutdown hurts rural and underserved patients, ATA Action says
140 organizations urge Congress to extend the hospital-at-home program
In search of a long-term approach to telehealth and hospital-at-home
Congress looks set to extend telehealth and hospital-at-home flexibilities
Where hospital-at-home and clinical informatics are heading
How health systems should be preparing now for the future of hospital at home
Mike Miliard is executive editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the writer: mmiliard@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
