Instead of a stay in the hospital when you’re sick, wouldn’t you rather be at home in the comfort of your own bed? For some Avera patients near Sioux Falls, that’s an option, thanks to the Hospital@Home program. It allows patients to receive inpatient level care in their homes. Hear from one patient who says this program made a difference when it came to her recovery.
“I ended up in the hospital because I had pneumonia and I couldn’t keep my oxygen level above 90,” said Avera patient, Jennifer Miklos.
“Jennifer came in through one of our emergency departments and was diagnosed with a pneumonia and was unfortunately requiring some oxygen so we needed to hospitalize her. But she was able to return home and get her antibiotics and oxygen and other treatments with nebulizers via Hospital@Home, instead of staying in the brick and mortar building,” said nurse practitioner with Hospital@Home, Bethlee Burke.
What is Avera’s Hospital@Home Program?
“Hospital level care provided to you in your home,” said hospitalist and Medical Director for Hospital@Home, Magdalene Fiddler, MD. “How I view Hospital@Home is basically a hospital without walls, so you have inpatients who aren’t at the level that you need constant monitoring, that still need inpatient care and you remove the walls from the hospital so now we can care for these patients in their homes, and care for them safely.”
The program originated during COVID. Patients utilizing Hospital@Home receive in-person visits from nurses, virtual care, and 24/7 availability to their health care team.
Bethlee Burke is part of that team.
“In my role as a nurse practitioner I will visit the patient daily, in person to do my assessment and exam and then our nursing staff will visit the patient two times daily to administer medications, do their assessments and then we also do a video visit with our attending physicians on our tablets, and they will round with the patients via video as well once a day,” said Burke.
In Jennifer’s case, she was first assessed in the hospital to see if she would be a good candidate for Hospital@Home.
“We will do the proper screenings, make sure it’s safe, make sure we can administer your medication or treatment plan at home,” said Dr. Fiddler.
And it turns out, she was the perfect patient for the program.
“I had a nurse come in twice a day, I had a doctor visit over the iPad,” said Miklos.
Who is Eligible for Hospital@Home?
“We’ve had patients with COPD, COVID, and influenza, and we were able to provide that type of care for them at home, for example people on oxygen, somebody who is at the level where they can function independently, needs to be in the hospital, but doesn’t need to be in the physical spaces,” said Dr. Fiddler.
Patients say there are many benefits when it comes to utilizing this type of care.
"Patients have said when I am getting discharged from this program, I am already home, so I can pay attention to what the doctor is telling me. They say when I’m here in the hospital, I hear a beep, a ding, a bell every five minutes, there’s somebody coming into my room and that’s not congruent with recovery,” said Dr. Fiddler. “They also like the individualized care, that one on one where they don’t have to have 10 different people disturbing them at one time.”
Benefits of Recovering at Home
But that’s not all...
“I got to sleep in my own bed! I didn’t have to be woken up in the middle of the night,” said Miklos.
“We are coming in on their time to take care of them, we bring everything that they would get in the hospital for an admission to them at home, they are moving around more in their own environment as well,” said Burke.
“Getting that care at home brings the health care to them, we meet them where they are at,” said Dr. Fiddler.
Plus, the Hospital@Home program is reaching its own milestones.
“We recently celebrated 500 patients in this program and we saved hospital days in terms of 1,000 plus hospital days,” said Dr. Fiddler.
Thanks to Hospital@Home, Jennifer is feeling healthy again, and credits the program to a smooth recovery.
“I’m feeling really good,” said Miklos. “It was the best thing that I could have had.”
Patients need to live within a 30-mile radius of Avera McKennan, in Sioux Falls, to be eligible for Hospital@Home. Learn more about home care at Avera.
