One patient who saw a benefit from hospital-at-home care was Phyllis Camaratta, a heart-failure patient living in Malden, Mass. After three years in and out of the hospital, the 93-year-old says she didn’t want to go back after she became ill again last fall. When a nurse practitioner suggested a Medically Home program offered through her health-care provider Atrius Health, Ms. Camaratta agreed to try it.
At first, she says, she was a little overwhelmed by how many people showed up to provide care, check her condition, set up equipment and perform tests on portable machines. But she was impressed by the care, including a daily video consult via iPad so a doctor could see if her legs had too much swelling from fluid buildup.
At the end of a month, she was discharged from the program and referred to a new primary-care doctor. “We were so impressed that they could do all the same things they did in the hospital and have my mother be comfortable in her own bed and her own bathroom…with family and familiar surroundings,” says her daughter, Debbie Camaratta. “She was in a very fragile state, but The care really helped her bounce back to the best she can be at this age.”
This excerpt is from an article on The Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/. Published on 2-26-18