Mayo Clinic Health System's "Advanced Care at Home" initiative is shortening hospital stays for patients undergoing orthopedic surgeries and allowing them to recover in the comfort of their own homes, wiproud.com reported Jan. 30.
At Mayo's Luther Campus in Eau Claire, Wis., the newly launched program is saving hospital beds for higher risk patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and, as a result of shortened hospital stays, decreasing the cost of care.
At patients' homes, hospital staff assemble "an electronic setup where there's connections to physicians and other care providers, and they also provide things like blood pressure monitoring, oxygen monitoring and things of that nature," Mayo surgeon Jonathan Webb, MD, told the news outlet. "We can provide some level of hospital care instead of using a bed for someone that's otherwise safe to be at home."
Nurses visit patient homes to administer medications and are nearby in case there's an emergency.
The Advanced Care at Home program, which Dr. Webb expects to outlast the pandemic, is available to patients who live within a 30-mile radius of the Luther Campus.