CHAPEL HILL – A “long-term shift” to at-home healthcare and away from hospitalizations is beginning at UNC Health with the launch of a new “Acute Care at Home Program.”
Bolstered by a recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services decision to back an Acute Hospital Care at Home initiative with regulatory and reimbursement support, such plans through healthcare systems are intended to provide hospital-level care to both COVID and non-COVID patients. CMS administers Medicare.
A spokesperson for UNC Health says the decision to launch the at-home service was not triggered by COVID-19 but “could offer another tool as our hospitals deal with the surge of patients.”
UNC Health is partnering with Boston-based Medically Home Group to launch the program.
“The CMS action offers a relief valve to hospitals overflowing with patients as COVID-19 infections surge across the United States, by making it easier for health systems to provide hospital-level care to both COVID and non-COVID patients in their homes,” Medically Home Group announced in November. Among its early partners is The Mayo Clinic.
UNC Health said the service will “provide hospital-level, high-acuity care to patients in the comfort and convenience of their own homes.” Possible patients include those will serious illnesses such as heart failure, COVID-19 and pneumonia who would typically require hospitalization.
The in-home program follows a rise in the use of telehealth services brought on by the pandemic.
Telehealth demand getting a boost from coronavirus – but what is it exactly?
COVID-19opened the door for Medicare patients to have access to telehealth, CMS decided in March. Telehealth connects patients to healthcare providers through videoconferencing, electronic consultations and virtual communications, in lieu of in-person consultations, according to the American Hospital Association. In 2019, 76% of US hospitals used the technology.
How program will work
Matt Smith, vice president of Well Care & Specialty Services at UNC Health tells WRAL TechWire a wide variety of services will be offered with UNC personnel or partners providing the in-home delivery.
“[M]obile imaging services [such as X-rays] will provided at the patient homes. Should the patient’s condition require them to be transported to an outpatient imaging center or bricks/mortar hospital, all of those services are arranged,” Smith says.
“UNC Health will provide a majority of these services since we currently offer them ‘in house’, but we’ll also be seeking partnerships with service providers in the community when most appropriate.”
The Medically Home model “allows UNC’s physicians and nurses to manage all aspects of a patient’s care 24/7 from a medical command center, directing a network of rapid-response clinical and non-clinical services, medications, equipment, and supplies brought to patients’ homes,” UNC Health noted.
Calling the service part of a “virtual hospital model, Rami Karjian, Medically Home CEO said it “eases bottlenecks within hospitals, freeing up beds which can then accommodate both ICU step-downs and new admissions from the emergency department. At the same time, it gives health systems the flexibility to distribute workloads geographically, with doctors and nurses in one location caring for patients anywhere within the health system’s footprint.”
UNC Health also noted in the announcement that “clinical studies have shown that home hospitalization delivers improved patient outcomes, higher patient and clinician satisfaction, cost savings, lower mortality, and lower risk for readmissions.”
Mid-year launch
The service will launch at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill and at REX Healthcare in Raleigh in the next few months and will gradually expand the service to the rest of its network, UNC Health added. It also is exploring partnerships with other hospitals.
Some 50 patients will be included in the service initially, according to a spokesperson.
Patients will be monitored from a command center on a 24/7 basis.
“Acute Care at Home reflects UNC Health’s commitment to innovative care as we work to improve the health and well-being of all North Carolinians,” said UNC Health CEO Wesley Burks, in the announcement. “Technology in enabling us to provide the right care to patients in a way that is safe and helps them recover where they are most comfortable. As Acute Care at Home availability expands across North Carolina through ongoing conversations with federal, state and commercial payers, we expect more and more patients will choose to receive high-acuity care at home.”
