Hackensack Meridian Health Launches Hospital at Home Program

The program is created through a Medicare waiver, which permits hospitals to provide acute care at home to Medicare patients. Hackensack Meridian Health, based in Edison, New Jersey, has launched a program called Hospital At Home at JFK University Medical Center, also in Edison. The program will deliver acute care in the home of a Medicare patient, and the health system expects it may ultimately be scalable to the larger patient population.

With healthcare increasingly expanding beyond hospital walls, Hackensack is banking on the program improving outcomes and patient satisfaction, as well as making care more affordable. The program is created through a Medicare waiver, which permits hospitals to provide acute care at home to Medicare patients. The network will select patients based on factors that include diagnoses that often result in frequent and costly readmissions to hospitals: uncomplicated congestive heart failure (CHF), pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cellulitis.

Initially, the program will admit a few patients per week and provide a number of services in the home, including two nursing visits daily; medication delivery, including infusions; rehab visits, as needed; and remote patient monitoring, which includes pulse ox, blood pressure, heart rate, weight and temperature. Nutritious meals and home health support can be provided as needed.