Sep 8, 2023
Dr. Monique Nugent is a practicing hospitalist and an associate director for the Division of Hospital Medicine at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Massachusetts. She's also the author of Prescription for Admission: A Doctor's Guide for Navigating the Hospital, Advocating for Yourself, and Having a Better Hospitalization. Post-COVID, hospitals are dealing with workflow and getting patients in and out of the hospital as soon as possible. One big obstacle is the lack of places patients can go for rehabilitation and skilled nursing care, which is leading to more consideration of the hospital-at-home model. While this is a patient-facing book, there are insights about what healthcare providers need to understand about the patient hospital experience.
Monique explains, "Hospital-at-home is not a new concept. It's somewhat of a new concept here in the United States, but hospital-at-home has been successful around the world, and I think there's a lot of really good benefits."
"Number one, it cuts down on costs, and that's always a big issue in this country. A day in the hospital comes with costs, not just for the care, there's the cost of the building that goes into your hospitalization. There's the cost of the electricity for that building that is built into your hospitalization. So, it does drive down costs just by moving the care to a different facility, which is your home."
"I also think hospital-at-home is a big boon for the comfort of patients. Particularly our elderly patients. When they come into the hospital, often you'll see that people who struggle a little bit with their memory, who have a touch of dementia, or who have significant dementia can get very confused in the hospital. A, they're sick, B, these are new people, C, their routine is thrown off, and so that can worsen confusion and delirium."
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