Orlando Health on Monday announced that it's been approved by Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration to start delivering hospital-level acute care in adult patients' homes.

WHY IT MATTERS
The health system is planning to launch its Hospital Care at Home initiative in February and make it available to specific patients who meet certain clinical criteria determined by emergency department and hospital staff.

Conditions such as cellulitis, COPD, asthma, UTI, heart failure, COVID-19, pneumonia and gastroenteritis are among those that can be treated safely in a home-based program.

Orlando Health's program is the first in Central Florida to be approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and represents an expansion of a federal enhanced care model created during the pandemic to extend the scope of hospital resources.

The Hospital Care at Home program will use connected health and remote patient monitoring tools that will connect patients to the Orlando Health Patient Care Hub for 24/7 virtual care by nurses and providers, in addition to in-person nursing check-ins daily.

The health system says it's looking for acute care nurses who might be interested in learning more and will be holding a virtual hiring event Nov. 15–16 from noon–4 p.m.

THE LARGER TREND
Given the impressive achievements in quality and cost efficiencies at early pioneers such as Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente, more and more hospitals and health systems are launching care-at home programs for both acute and chronic conditions, some tailored to specific clinical use cases.

In recent weeks, Nuvance Health announced its development of a memory care-at-home platform. Memora Health announced its ongoing work with Mayo Clinic on a virtual home-based postpartum care initiative. And Allina Health spinoff Inbound Health announced its plans to help other providers develop home-based acute care and skilled nursing models.

Mayo Clinic Platform President Dr. John Halamka has said he sees a healthcare future based around "virtualist centers in what were formerly known as hospitals. It's going to be the emergency department for heart attacks or strokes. An ICU tower right next door which will take care of the sickest of the sick that can't possibly have home health care … But other than that? All the ambulatory care stuff, and all the simple stuff? It all gets moved into the home."

Here are some tips for how health systems should be preparing now for the future of hospital-at-home.

See our interview from earlier this year with Orlando Health CIO Novlet Palmer Mattis.

ON THE RECORD
"Hospital Care at Home introduces another option for Orlando Health patients to receive high-quality care in an environment that best facilitates their recovery," Dr. Jamal Hakim, chief operating officer at Orlando Health, said in a statement. "Patients with certain acute conditions can be treated in the comfort of their home with the same level of care and monitoring they would receive within the walls of our hospitals."

Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
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