The days of the hospital as we know it may be numbered. In a shift away from their traditional inpatient facilities, health-care providers are investing in outpatient clinics, same-day surgery centers, free-standing emergency rooms and microhospitals, which offer as few as eight beds for overnight stays. They are setting up programs that monitor people 24/7 in their own homes. And they are turning to digital technology to treat and keep tabs on patients remotely from a high-tech hub. ...
A series of trends are driving the changing nature of hospital care across America. Alongside medical risks associated with hospitalization, the financial practicability of hospitals is itself being called into question. This is driving a shift away from traditional inpatient facilities, and looking forwards to virtual and outpatient clinics, same day surgeries, microhospitals and home monitoring systems. This doesn’t represent the death of the traditional hospital but is more indicative of a changing desire in how patients want to receive care, and chief amongst these is a return to hospital-level care at home. Studies have shown that this form of care can cut costs by up to 50 percent, and often with fewer complications, lower mortality rates and even higher patient satisfaction. The New York-based Mount Sinai operates one of these programs and they estimate that up to 575,000 cases a year would qualify for this form of care, and even treating only 20 percent of these cases would see Medicare save $45 million annually. As patients begin to receive care away from major hospitals, microhospitals, or ‘neighborhood hospitals’, are becoming more common. Typically visits to these hospitals are incredibly brief, with 92 percent of patients staying only 90 minutes. Services offered here include emergency care, labor and delivery, as well as surgical procedures and radiology services. One such group in Louisiana has 30 hospitals and says 80 percent of its capital expenditures are going to outpatient clinics. The same group, the Ochsner Health System, is also part of a new trend for existing hospitals, whereby the buildings are repurposed to offer different forms of care. This has seen the conversion of the traditional River Parishes Hospital in Louisiana into a specialist inpatient psychiatric facility and there have been similar alterations in New York. The goal of these sort of changes is to care for each patient in the most appropriate setting, focusing on wellness and simply keeping people out of hospital. This ties into an increased push towards preventative care that is being undertaken across America. In a nation where, 50 percent of people are predisposed to diabetes and every third person is considered ‘food insecure’, it is important that health programs focus on healthy diets and supporting families in need. This is being accompanied by developments in genomics so that it is now possible to note predispositions to certain illnesses. Treatment away from hospital in a bid to reduce health costs is seeing increased investment in telemedicine. Whether direct consultation between patient and doctor, or between doctors, the technology promises to reduce demand on beds and connect patients to providers in rural areas where care centers are far more sporadic. Even in these rural areas, hospitals can connect patients to doctors at other institutions. Whether through technology or practicality there is a major shift to creating a more efficient health care system.