Courtesy of Yale New Haven Hospital

Yale New Haven Health recently celebrated the treatment of 1,000 patients through its Home Hospital Program. 

On June 6, the Yale New Haven Health system hosted an event to commemorate the achievement of treating 1,000 patients through its Home Hospital Program, which launched in 2022. The program offers hospital-level care to patients in their homes, providing services for various acute conditions like heart failure, pneumonia and sepsis. 

“The vision was to create another pathway for patients who are acutely ill, but we can safely take care of them in their homes, to release some of the bottleneck in the [emergency department] and allow capacity for patients who are really sick and need the hospital bed,” said Nana Boahemaa, the head nurse of the Home Hospital Program. 

According to Thomas Balcezak, chief clinical officer of the health system, the program’s vision emerged when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services created a waiver program in 2020 that allowed for the delivery of acute, hospital-level care at home. 

The Home Hospital program serves patients within a 25-mile radius of Yale New Haven or Bridgeport hospitals. To achieve this, the health system partnered with Medically Home, a startup that facilitates hospital-level care at patients’ homes. Partnering with Medically Home, Yale New Haven Health has ensured that patients receive consistent care, combining in-person visits with advanced telehealth technology. 

“Medically Home is a leader in this space of sort of figuring out how to translate inpatient care into deliverable appointments that can be carried out in patients’ homes,” Carly Brown, the program’s medical director, told the News.

Since delivering home-hospital care was only possible after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services created a waiver, implementation of the program included logistical hurdles. Prior to the program, the health system had never delivered care within a 25-mile radius of a hospital. As a result, Balcezak said program coordinators lacked the expertise and experience required to understand the logistics of delivering this care.

Despite these challenges, the program has shown promising results in terms of safety and patient outcomes. According to Brown, there have been no serious safety events in a patient’s home. Additionally, Brown said the program has demonstrated similar, if not better, quality outcomes for patients.

“Our patients are extremely happy to be cared for in their own living space. They can eat their own food, sleep in their own bed, and that, in itself, has improved the patient experience,” Boahemaa told the News. “I think virtual nursing and home hospital care is the future. Finding new, innovative ways of doing more in a patient’s home is where we have to head.”

Looking ahead, the program aims to expand further. This vision aligns with the health system’s goals for transforming healthcare delivery to meet evolving patient needs. 

As the program expands, it aims to offer a flexible and cost-effective model that could serve as a blueprint for future healthcare delivery both within the community.

“We’re not going to rest until we get to 25, to 30, to 40, to 50 patients at home,” said Balcezak. 

Yale New Haven Health is located at 789 Howard Ave.