Get Treatment At Home, Instead Of The Hospital?

December 2021

In theory, many acute illnesses could be treated by medical professionals making house calls. With a little push from the pandemic, doctors, nurses, and home health care providers out west and in the east are putting theory into practice.  

Hospitals and health care networks in Denver, Tacoma, Sioux Falls and Baltimore are now offering degrees of at-home care for illnesses such as urinary tract infections and pneumonia, Next Avenue reports, and other providers and hospitals may follow, especially at a moment when hospital beds are at a premium in some metro areas. When a nurse or doctor comes to treat you at home, you can talk to them in the comfort of familiar surroundings, and that medical professional can observe aspects of your daily life, which may inform your treatment. Just as in a hospital or urgent care center, Medicare recipients can expect that program to pay its share of the bill. X-rays, blood work, antibiotics, and EKGs can be administered in home settings now thanks to advancing technology, and the trend may point to a new path in health care.³