Australia’s ‘Hospital in the Home’ Care Model Demonstrates Major Cost Savings and Comparable Patient Outcomes
New report determines in-home patient care can save an average of 22% over inpatient care for six different health conditions
Momentum continues to build in favor of the “Hospital in the Home”, known by the acronym HITH. For certain health conditions, this care model allows the patient to remain in his or her home, instead of staying in a hospital. Caregivers, including specialist physicians, come to the residence with almost the same frequency as occurs for hospital inpatients.
Wider adoption of this model of patient care would directly affect pathologists and clinical laboratory managers who work in hospital laboratories. Over time, it could mean fewer inpatient admissions and thus, less medical laboratory test volumes for inpatient services. On the other hand, more HITH patients would increase the need to collect specimens in patient’s homes and get them to a local clinical laboratory for testing. Hospital-based medical laboratories—because they are central to the communities they serve—would be well-positioned to provide this diagnostic testing.
