Post-pandemic, even hospital care goes remote
David and Marcia Elder packed their bags anticipating a month-long stay at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., when David went in for a bone-marrow transplant in late February, as part of his treatment for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer.
A few hours after surgery, the couple were amazed when staff offered them the option of returning home that day. "They came to us and said, 'We have this hospital-at-home program' and I was like, 'What? I'd never even heard of it,'" Marcia Elder says.
By dinnertime that day, paramedics had set up a make-shift recovery room in their living space and they returned to convalesce at home.
Such a thing was unimaginable, just a few years ago. The Mayo Clinic was among the first hospitals in the country to experiment with sending acute patients home for remote care four years ago. Now, some 250 similar programs exist throughout the country.
That's largely because during the pandemic, the federal agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid relaxed normal rules requiring around-the-clock, on-site nurses for hospitals requesting the exception. This allowed at-home hospital care programs to rapidly expand. Those pandemic-era waivers will remain in place until at least the end of 2024, although
