Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine has rolled out hospital at home at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, both in Philadelphia.
The academic health system spent nearly three years building the program, from concept to pilot to the launch in April, with more than 1,000 meetings in between. Staff also ran a four-day simulation leading up to the go-live.
“You would never walk out onto a Broadway stage without practicing over and over again,” said Sebastian Ramagnano, MSN, RN, clinical director of Penn Medicine at Home and interim clinical director of hospital at home, in an April 23 news release. “The simulations are a perfect time to actually test your adaptability, your flexibility, your ability to manage ambiguity.”
Patients receive in-home visits from nurses twice a day and a daily virtual appointment with a physician, and wear a remote monitoring patch that continuously measures vitals and transmits them to a nearby tablet and back to the care team. Patients also go home with a scale, blood pressure cuff and pulse oximeter.
Penn Medicine plans to scale up the program at the two hospitals this year, and at Lancaster (Pa.) General Hospital in the fall, before later bringing it to West Chester, Pa.-based Chester County Hospital, Doylestown (Pa.) Hospital, Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Hospital, and Plainsboro Township, N.J.-based Princeton Medical Center.
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