Hackensack Meridian Health’s popular — and extremely impactful — Hospital from Home program resumed Monday, following a nearly two-month pause due to the federal government shutdown, the health system announced this week.
This is a good thing. And to be clear, HMH didn’t want to pause the program. However, it was required to pause operations due to the expiration of the federal Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver, which was tied to Congress’s continuing budget resolution.
The budget signed by President Donald Trump last week extends the acute hospital care at home waiver, allowing HMH and other health systems with hospital at home programs to resume, at least for now.
Hackensack Meridian Health Hospital from Home launched in late April 2024 after a successful 2022 pilot at JFK University Medical Center.
Hospital From Home has cared for more than 1,300 patients from its sites at Hackensack University Medical Center, Jersey Shore University Medical Center and JFK University Medical Center, and this summer just a few months before the government shutdown, HMH had expanded the Hospital From Home program to two more of its hospitals, Ocean University Medical Center in Brick, New Jersey and Southern Ocean Medical Center in Stafford Township.
Hackensack Meridian Health has invested in Hospital from Home, believing it to be an important healthcare innovation, improving outcomes, patient satisfaction and decreasing the cost of health care.
But the network investment in the program is not without risk.
Because the program requires a federal waiver currently tied to the federal budget process, it is regularly left in limbo with each government shutdown or looming government shutdown.
The hospital from home program resuming on Monday, could once again need to be put on pause in late January. This is why Hackensack Meridian Health CEO Robert C. Garrett penned a powerful Op-Ed urging Congress to extend the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver independent of the budget but passing the bipartisan “Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act.”
Garrett, who deservedly was named to the BINJE’s Best: Power Players list, has been outspoken on many health care issues, including vaccines.
HMH also has been a leader in community-based efforts. It recently announced a more than $7 million commitment to help fight food insecurity.
As for the Hospital from Home program, the bill will extend the initiative for five years, allowing these programs to stay open and continue to provide quality care. This gives hospitals and health systems the security to invest in the technology and logistical infrastructure to build and expand these programs.
Home hospital care is one of the fastest-growing modes of care, delivered through a hybrid model of virtual and in-person visits. Through Hospital from Home, patients are monitored virtually through a clinically integrated, physician-led virtual command center, which operates 24 hours a day to ensure seamless patient care alongside in-person nurse visits. Services and treatments include IV antibiotics, infusions, medication management, laboratory services, physical, occupational, speech and respiratory therapy and imaging in a patient’s home. Meals and nutritional consultations are also available.
The impact is personal.
When Harry Gordon needed IV antibiotics for a urinary tract infection, he was upset, thinking he would need to stay several nights at the hospital. The active 70-year-old, who loves to cook, didn’t want to eat hospital food. He wanted to sleep in his own bed and be free to walk around as he pleased.
That’s why Gordon was thrilled to learn, he wouldn’t have to stay overnight at the hospital but could instead get his treatment through Hackensack Meridian Health’s Hospital from Home Program.
Thanks to the signing of the resolution, Gordon can resume his care at home.
