People check into the hospital expecting to get better, but there are risks — and some even wind up getting sicker. You can face the danger of complications, like bleeding or infection. There are also the constant check-ins from nurses or physicians that can disrupt sleep. And none of that includes the cost.
Interestingly enough, a new pilot study found that it might just be better for your health (and wallet) to get treated at home rather than at a hospital. In what is said to be the first randomized controlled trial of home hospital career in the US, investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found there is strong evidence that home hospital care can be delivered to “acutely ill adults with lower cost, better physical activity, high quality and safety, and excellent patient experience.”
Models of home hospital care vary, but generally it involves providing patients who have just visited the emergency room with hospital-level care. According to the researchers, patients receiving at-home care had total costs that were almost 40 percent lower than for patients treated conventionally. What’s more, patients even had lower readmission rates than patients admitted to hospital care.
While more research needs to be done, this pilot study could have huge implications on the way patients are treated.
