"Why Brigham And Mount Sinai Are Bringing ED To Your Living Room"
A small but growing number of hospitals – including Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Mount Sinai Health System – are providing in-home treatment for patients who present at the ED with conditions that would typically merit hospitalization. In-home care can help patients avoid some of the risk and stressors of hospitalization. On the financial side, the at-home setup also offers the potential for cost savings. Mount Sinai launched its Hospital at Home program in 2014, and since then has treated more than 700 patients who would otherwise have been hospitalized at home. Mount Sinai refers patients into the program from certain EDs along with its primary care practices and urgent care centers. According to Linda DeCherrie, MD, director of the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program and clinical director of the Mobile Acute Care Team in Mount Sinai’s Hospital at Home Program, insurers are worried about where home care will ultimately end up. “Insurers don’t want to be paying for an admission if this patient really wouldn’t have been hospitalized in the first place,” she said.
- Linda DeCherrie, MD, Associate Professor, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program, Program Director, Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program, The Mount Sinai Hospital