Though Hospital at Home programs have been around for years, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated their adoption across the country to help ensure continuity of care amid rising infection rates. Since then, they’ve remained a valuable and effective option for patient care, improving patient outcomes and engagement.
Over the last two years, the U.S. healthcare system has worked around the clock to care for countless patients. The struggle has been intense, and hospitals and health systems nationwide have risen to the challenge.
Still, the heavy influx of patients resurfaced a long-standing problem. Healthcare disparities remain significant, drastically reducing access to quality care services for racial, ethnic and cultural minority groups.
Virtual care — while not new prior to the pandemic — significantly increased in popularity as providers turned to safe alternatives for delivering health care amidst COVID-19. Virtual care is a broad term that encompasses many ways that health care providers and patients interact real-time through digital tools. Examples include care delivered via video, audio, remote monitoring, instant messaging, and more.
