No one likes going to the hospital if you can avoid it. For older patients, there’s even evidence that hospitals can cause as many problems as they solve. Health experts are now beginning to chime in on what may be the death knell of modern hospitals as we’ve known them. In a recent New York Times op-ed, Zeke Emanuel, formerly of the Obama Administration and now at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that hospitals are becoming obsolete. He cites data to show hospitalization rates are declining and argues that sophisticated medical care can now be handled better, and more cost-efficiently, in the home setting. Writing in The Wall Street Journal (paywall), Laura Landro describes what hospitals may evolve into as we move forward: micro facilities where only the sickest, most complex medical cases are addressed, with more traditional hospital care occurring in outpatient or even home settings. In fact, a small, recent study out of Boston found that the “home hospital model” can be less expensive and allow for improved activities for patients as compared to the traditional acute care hospital experience. In New York, Mt. Sinai Hospital now runs a Hospital at Home Program that provides for round-the-clock monitoring and hospital-level care all in the privacy of one’s own home. While there will always be a need for hospitalization for some of our sickest patients, it could be that for those less sick, there’s no place like home.
