PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — For many of us, a hospital can be a scary and intimidating place.
So there’s a new push among health care providers to let eligible patients recover, outside of the hospital.
Over the holidays, Janet Savarese fell ill, really ill.
She said her oxygen levels were in the 80’s and after a week where she wasn't getting any better, a neighbor stepped in to take her to the emergency room.
At Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital in Port St. Lucie, after a battery of tests, she got a diagnosis and found out it was the flu.
She was presented the option of recovering at home and agreed.
"In a hospital, they’re constantly waking you up. You never sleep right. You’re not in your own bed, not in your own bathroom," Savarese said
Dr. Richard Rothman, chief of medical operations for Cleveland Clinic in Florida, said the way they deliver care today is going to look much different tomorrow.
He said a team evaluates whether a patient is eligible to participate in the new Hospital Care at Home program.
“Hospital Care at Home allows us to provide care beyond physical footprint, also opens a bed for our sickest patient," Rothman said.
Janet is one of the first patients to use the program through Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital. It began a few months ago at Cleveland’s Clinic Indian River Hospital, and it will expand to Cleveland Clinic’s Martin County hospitals.
Saverese was brought home by paramedics and then a team set up her home with the medical equipment, and the medicines she would need.
"They put up an iPad with someone 24/7. All I had to do was touch it and there was either a nurse or a doctor there."
"Nurses are able to respond in less than 30 seconds," Rothman said.
Rothman said readmission rates are lower, hospital infections have been zero so far, and an unexpected positive has come with regards to nursing and staff recruitment, as employees work specifically with Care at Home patients.
"Avoid the physical detriment of working within hospital and really focus on interacting with patients without physical burden, so we’re seeing the number of applicants outpace the number of positions we have available," Rothman said.
This type of care was sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services initiated the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver.
Rothman said their program is too new to say whether this is the most cost-efficient way of delivering care," Rothman. said.
