Hospital at Home FAQs

Hospital at Home is for patients who have acute conditions or illnesses with low complication rates. This includes:

• Acute kidney injuries
• Severe skin infections
• Congestive heart failure exacerbation (when heart failure gets worse)
• COVID-19
• Flu
• Urinary tract infection (UTI)
• Other problems unlikely to have complications

Your doctors and nurses will speak with you and your family about the Hospital at Home program if it is an option for you.

Yes. With the Hospital at Home program, you receive the same level of care at home that hospital patients receive. We use the newest telehealth technology to bring our clinical experts to you at home.

You can decide whether to participate in Hospital at Home. You can decline and stay at the hospital instead. 

The Hospital at Home program takes many steps to help keep you safe and deliver effective care: 

• Evaluation: Before you are admitted to the program, we carefully evaluate your care needs and home situation.
• Eligibility: Only patients with certain medical conditions and low complication risks are considered.
• Remote monitoring: We remotely monitor your vital signs 24/7 and can send providers whenever necessary.

Hospital at Home is not the same as home health care. 

• Home health care includes short visits to support recovery, usually after a hospital stay.
• Hospital at Home provides hospital-level care and 24/7 monitoring.

Remote monitoring technologies send information to your care team 24/7, including:

• Heart rate
• Pulse oximetry
• Respiratory rate
• Blood pressure

We contact you immediately if there are concerning changes in any of these vital signs. We may conduct a telehealth visit, send assistance to your home or bring you back to the hospital.

If your care team decides you need to go back to the hospital, here’s what might happen:

• Emergency care: We will send you to the emergency room for severe issues.
• Transfer to the hospital: Hospital at Home staff may stay with you until a hospital bed is available.
  
   

Hospital at Home is for everyone, regardless of income level. Your health insurance should cover the services in the same way it would a hospital stay.

Yes. Studies show that the bond between people and their pets can have health benefits. However, we may ask pets to be moved to a separate room during our visits.

We will transport you home at no cost to you. A nurse from the Hospital at Home program meets you at your house when you arrive.

Your outpatient medical appointments will be rescheduled while you are in the Hospital at Home program. We ensure that all care you require from specialists during your inpatient hospital stay is provided to you.

If you had a PCA or a Home Health Aide (HHA) before your Hospital at Home stay, we work with you to have that support reinstated after discharge from Hospital at Home.

Studies show that Hospital at Home programs are safe and effective. Patients often recover more comfortably at home, with better sleep and fewer disruptions. And outcomes may be even better than a hospital stay.

At UMass Memorial, we often have more people seeking care than we have hospital beds. This is true of many academic medical centers and hospitals that serve the broader community. This can lead to patients who need a bed waiting in the emergency room. By offering hospital care in the comfort of your home, we can prevent long waits in the hospital while also alleviating some of the strain on our emergency rooms.