A majority Americans said they believe they would recover faster if treated within their own home. It’s a rising pandemic-era trend for hospital level care.
Researchers from the University of Southern California Schaeffer Center studied the willingness of Americans to provide care in the home. It’s a study that comes at a pivotal time for the practice, as policymakers continue to weigh the costs and benefits of a pandemic-era at-home care program.
In November 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched the Acute Hospital Care at Home initiative, allowing Medicare-certified hospitals to treat patients at home. Congress went on to extend the initiative through the end of 2024, but the decision to codify the service for 2025 is still up in the air.
“Patients of course want the best-quality care, but often prefer to be at home, especially if technology allows them to work closely with their physician team toward recovery,” Melissa A. Frasco, research scientist at the Schaeffer Center, said in a news release.
The researchers surveyed around 1,100 people who served as a sample of the U.S. population. Around 82% of participants felt comfortable managing a patient’s medications at home, with 67% being willing to provide more in-depth care. Just under half, 47%, agreed that hospital-at-home care was an acceptable alternative to visiting a hospital. Around 17% felt negatively about the idea, and 36% were neutral to it. More than half, 56%, said they believed treatments at home would lead to faster recoveries.
“Our findings offer valuable information for policymakers and health systems as they navigate a new landscape of post-pandemic patient care,” co-author Erin L. Duffy, director of research training at the Schaeffer Center, said in the news release. “Extending reimbursement for hospital-at-home care could go a long way toward reducing costs and improving outcomes, benefiting all parties involved.”
At-home health care can take many forms. It can be as simple as a family member providing wound care for a patient, but can also be more complex. Technology continues to drive the practice forward through the rise of remote monitoring and telehealth tools.
According to the Schaeffer Center, in-home care can reduce hospital readmissions and significantly lower health care costs.
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