"What The Hospitals Of The Future Look Like" — Laura Landro
The days of the hospital as we know it may be numbered. In a shift away from their traditional inpatient facilities, health‐ care providers are investing in outpatient clinics, same‐day surgery centers, free‐standing emergency rooms and microhospitals, which offer as few as eight beds for overnight stays. Mount Sinai Health System has developed a hospital‐ at‐home program, HaH‐plus, for some patients who show up at the emergency department or are referred by their primary‐care doctors. “For some admissions, we can avoid the emergency department, but for most admissions like pneumonia, dehydration or a skin infection, we evaluate them in the ED and then send them home in an ambulance with an IV in place,” said Linda DeCherrie, MD, clinical director of the mobile acute care team of Mount Sinai’s Hospital at Home Program. Mount Sinai estimates that nationally, 575,000 cases each year could qualify for such a program, and treating just 20 percent of those could save Medicare $45 million annually. Mount Sinai is working with Contessa Health, which manages bundled‐payment arrangements for hospital‐at‐home services, and plans to expand the home program to other areas, such as patients recovering from surgeries that would typically require an inpatient stay. “The goal is to care for each patient in the most appropriate setting, whether in a traditional hospital bed, an outpatient center or at home,” said Kenneth L. Davis, MD, president and CEO of the Mount Sinai Health System.
- Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President, CEO, Mount Sinai Health System
- Linda V. DeCherrie, MD, Associate Professor, Medicine, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Clinical Director, Mobile Acute Care Team, Mount Sinai’s Hospital at Home Program