UMass Memorial launches at-home hospital service

Photo | Grant Welker UMass Memorial Medical Center's University Campus in Worcester, which is one of the hospitals under the UMass Memorial Health umbrella

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By Katherine Hamilton

UMass Memorial Health on Tuesday accepted its first patient into the new telehealth program, Hospital at Home, which allows patients to stay at home while receiving hospital-level services.

Along with virtual vital-sign monitoring and visits from doctors, patients can have medications and therapy delivered to their homes.

The program is backed by studies showing patients tend to have better health outcomes and greater satisfaction when treated in their own home, according to the Hospital at Home webpage.

The team aims to care for five new patients per day in August, and 10 per day in September, said Candra Szymanski, who is the interim program lead and UMass Memorial's former associate chief nursing officer for emergency and critical care services.

UMass Memorial received funding from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in May for the program.

CMS launched the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver in November, allowing hospitals to apply for funding for at-home care programs. As of July 27, a total of 68 hospitals were granted waivers, according to the CMS website.

It took six months to develop the program and pull together a team, said Szymanski, who came out of retirement to lead the program's team.

"It's such a great, new, exciting program. How can you say no?" she said.

Most of the nurses on the team transferred from other positions at UMass, undergoing a rigorous training on electronic medical records and virtual monitoring technology, said Szymanski. A new medical director with a background in at-home hospital care, Constantinos Michaelidis, was also hired.