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Lola Butcher
A while back, Robert Diegelmann completed a 10-day hospital visit — in the comfort of his home.
The 81-year-old was being treated for a recurring infection at VCU Medical Center’s brick-and-mortar hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when his doctor suggested he finish his hospital stay at his home in Midlothian, some 15 miles away.
The medical center arranged his transportation home and supplied meals. Nurses visited twice a day, and twice a day by video, too. A courier delivered daily medications to his house. His vital signs were monitored remotely, and he had round-the-clock access to a clinician via phone call or text.
“Every day or so, a physician would get on the screen, and we would talk back and forth, and he would answer any questions I had,” says Diegelmann, a retired biochemistry and molecular biology professor. “It was exactly like being in the hospital, but much more comfortable.”
Like Diegelmann, tens of thousands of hospitalized patients across the United States have been treated in their own homes as the hospital-at-home movement, widely used in some other parts of the world, gains traction. These home hospitals provide many of the services patients get in physical hospitals: X-rays, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, intravenous treatments, blood draws for laboratory analysis and more. They provide supplies and equipment, such as hospital beds and specialized mattresses.
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