Hospital-at-Home to Support COVID-19 Surge—Time to Bring Down the Walls?

Abstract

As the world grapples with accelerating cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), experts have called for a surge in hospital capacity to provide acute care for individuals with pneumonia and other serious complications. 1 Despite efforts at mitigation, including social distancing and rapid testing and isolation of cases, hospitals in many places, including New York City, are overwhelmed with patients.Current estimates project that the 000 deaths">US will have at least 60 000 deaths and 10 times that number requiring hospitalization.Author affiliations and article information are listed at the end of this article.

Hospital-at-Home Interventions vs In-Hospital Stay for Patients With Chronic Disease Who Present to the Emergency Department

“…Given the current global COVID-19 pandemic wherein risk of infectious disease spread is a major concern, especially for patients with chronic diseases, HaH may be considered as a viable alternative to hospitalization. 55 …”

Management and outcomes of a COVID‐19 outbreak in a nursing home with predominantly Black residents

“…SNFs continue to care for ongoing surges of COVID-19 driven by community spread and new mutations where infection and death rates may be as high or higher than in the spring of 2020. 31 As healthcare organizations shift lower-acuity COVID-19 patients from the hospital to long-term acute care hospitals or hospital-at-home models to mitigate the strain on acute care settings, 32,33 it is imperative to design robust clinical care management pathways to care for COVID-19-positive patients in SNFs. 34 The objective of this manuscript is to: (1) present and summarize a novel clinical management pathway…”

Home‐Based Medical Care: High‐Value Health Care During Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Beyond

“…We agree with Drs. Nundy and Patel that expansion of hospital at home should be a priority in our country's COVID‐19 response 16 . Home management of acute non‐COVID illness can reduce bed utilization, avoid isolating patients from their families, and reduce the risk of hospital‐based transmission of disease.…”

“…Nundy and Patel that expansion of hospital at home should be a priority in our country's COVID-19 response. 16 Home management of acute non-COVID illness can reduce bed utilization, avoid isolating patients from their families, and reduce the risk of hospital-based transmission of disease. When backed by adequate resources, it may also be safe and effective to enroll lower-risk COVID-19 patients in a hospital at home program.…”