To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of an acute hospital care at home (AHCAH) program for patients with acute heart failure (HF).
Approach:
Study Design: Propensity-matched analysis comparing patients treated at home with those receiving traditional hospital care.
Setting: Kaiser Permanente Southern California's Advanced Medical Care at Home program.
Key Findings:
No significant differences in 30-day or 60-day all-cause readmission, escalation of care, or mortality between home and traditional hospital care, according to the study by Huang et al.
The study found no difference in days alive at home and out of hospital at 60 days.
AHCAH may reduce skilled nursing facility use despite similar preadmission mobility assessments, as noted in the findings.
Interpretation:
Limitations:
Generalizability of findings is uncertain due to case-by-case eligibility determination by clinicians, as highlighted in the study.
Costs of launching and sustaining high-quality virtual hospital programs are not fully defined, according to the authors.
Advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist Sanjeev Kumar Gulati, M.D., FACC, has joined Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care, and will serve as executive deputy director and system chief of cardiovascular medicine
