Revolutionizing Healthcare

“As the economist Milton Friedman pointed out, in a crisis people go looking for ideas that have been around for a while because they don’t have time to develop something new.” and that is happening in healthcare during and after COVID.

A recent study by Harvard and Boston University researchers found that hospital care for Medicare patients costs about $3,300 less when performed at home than in a hospital. The savings are even more significant when taking into account the cost of post-acute care, which can add up to $12,200 per patient. These findings suggest that a shift from in-hospital to home hospital care could significantly reduce healthcare costs while maintaining or improving the quality of care.

Researchers analyzed data from over 1 million Medicare patients to come to their conclusions

The shift from in-hospital primary care to home hospital care is gaining momentum, and it's about time. Our healthcare system is too centralized, and we're still focused on building large and expensive hospitals in city centers. Existing ultrasound systems are outdated and still depend on a doctor to look at the image, analyze it, and interpret it. 50% of readmissions are happening because of not following discharge orders or regular visits after being released from the hospital. Especially people living in rural areas or low-income communities don't have access to regular visits or medical monitoring.

Hospital care at home is less costly because there is no need for expensive hospital infrastructure, and patients can be cared for by lower-paid home health aides rather than doctors and nurses.

Today, an increasing number of people are making the shift from in-hospital primary care to home hospital care. This trend is motivated by a desire to save on healthcare costs – after all, hospital infrastructure is expensive, and patients can be cared for more cheaply at home by lower-paid health aides. What's more, recent advances in medical technology make it possible for patients to receive high-quality care at home without sacrificing convenience or access to expert medical professionals.

Despite these cost savings, quality of care was found to be equal or better in home hospital settings. Patients reported higher satisfaction rates and experienced fewer complications.

The shift from in-hospital primary care to home hospital care has been gaining momentum for a number of reasons. Today, the healthcare system is too centralized, and we are still focused on building large and expensive hospitals in city centers. Existing ultrasound systems (even the new versions) is that they still depend on a doctor to look at the image, analyze it and interpret it. Fifty percent of readmissions are happening because of not following discharge orders and regular visits after being released from the hospital.

The researchers suggest that policy

One of the issues with our current healthcare system is that it is too centralized. We continue to build large and expensive hospitals in city centers while existing ultrasound systems still require a doctor's interpretation. Additionally, 50% of readmissions happen because patients don't follow discharge orders or have regular visits after leaving the hospital. This lack of access to regular medical care affects rural and low-income populations the most, resulting in higher healthcare costs overall. The researchers suggest wife policy changes could help alleviate some of these problems by decentralizing medical imaging and making it more accessible to all patients.

"Medical imaging is not exactly a black box, but here we explored what we knew were some of the main barriers to imaging access in rural locations. Now that we know some of the main problems, we can work to find solutions," says Lyden. "Decentralizing imaging services, in this case, means moving them closer to the patient, to support better treatment and potentially reduce re-hospitalizations."

The officials say readmissions can produce a financial impact on patients and healthcare organizations. In fact, according to CMS, the estimated cost of all hospital readmissions in the U.S. is roughly $26 billion annually.

Along with investing in improvements in care coordination, patient education, and access to transportation, healthcare organizations can also prevent unnecessary readmissions by using health information technology. For example, accurate and complete patient data is essential to ensure proper diagnoses and disease management plans.

In addition, automated clinical decision support tools can help clinicians review patient data to ensure proper discharge procedures are being followed to prevent hospital readmissions.