The emerging technology that could help hospital-at-home expand
Technology companies are racing to bring tools to market aimed at helping health systems provide hospital-at-home more effectively.
The federal government extended Medicare’s Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver through September 2030, making at-home reimbursement rates equal to in-hospital care. In response, providers are looking to expand their programs — including investing in technology to address common pain points.
Competition for those dollars could be fierce.
Here are some of the tools on the horizon for hospital-at-home companies.
Staffing logistics platforms
Logistics platforms on the market coordinate the delivery of medical equipment to patients’ homes. But figuring out staff deployment remains a major challenge for many hospital-at-home programs.
“In our command center we’ve got Google maps and Excel documents with nurses manually routing people between different locations. It’s a headache,” said Dr. Constantinos Michaelidis, medical director for UMass Memorial Health’shospital-at-home program in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Medical technology company Cardinal Health is looking to build a staffing logistics tool based off of its hospital-at-home supply chain platform, Velocare. The platform routes medical supplies to patients’ homes and could be modified to do the same with staff.
“We’ll figure out a way to bring it to market as a standalone [tool] or something that fits in really nicely with what we already do,” said Alex Hoopes, Velocare senior director and general manager.
Cardinal Health does not disclose product pricing and did not provide a timeline for a possible rollout. The company said Velocare has been able to save hospital-at-home programs between $800 and $1,200 per patient.
Hospital-at-home technology company Current Health announced earlier this month it will have an artificial intelligence-based tool on the market later this year to coordinate staff logistics, as well as deliveries of medical supplies to patients’ homes. The company has not yet determined what the technology will cost its health system partners.
Uber Health said in an email it is exploring ways the ride-sharing platform’s logistics technology might support hospital-at-home programs.
Remote patient monitoring devices
Some medical device companies are looking to expand their offerings to keep at-home patients from going back to the hospital, which is often an expensive and complicated process.
Technology company Vivalink is developing a wearable sensor to detect if a patient is going to fall — a leading cause of hip fractures and emergency department visits among older adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The sensor would be included in an existing package Vivalink sells to help hospitals remotely track their at-home patients’ vitals, said marketing vice president Sam Liu. Liu could not project when the fall sensor would be on the market.
Each kit — which currently includes blood pressure monitors, cardiac monitors and other wearables — costs about $20,000 a year and can be used for multiple patients. Vivalink provides technology to hospital-at-home patients through partnerships with Boston-based Mass General Brigham and Current Health.
Tampa General Hospital is testing computer vision technology from an undisclosed vendor that uses artificial intelligence to calculate blood pressure, heart rate, temperature and respiration by scanning a patient’s face during a telehealth visit.
The tool — not yet on the market — wouldn’t be used to diagnose a patient. But it could help the health system decide if it needs to send a clinician out to visit a hospital-at-home patient, said Dr. Peter Chang, senior vice president and chief transformation officer at the provider.
iMedrix Diagnostics sells a portable electrocardiogram that enables patients to get cardiac assessments at home with the help of a clinician.
CEO John Phillips said the device has been popular with hospital-at-home programs and the company may develop other diagnostic equipment to be used in the home for patients with diabetes and pulmonary diseases.
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