Finding Solutions: Wellstar MCG launches Hospital at Home program
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - One local man is Georgia’s first hospital-at-home patient. Wellstar MCG Health recently launched the Hospital Care at Home program which provides patients with everything they need to recover from the comfort of their own bed.
Wellstar is the first in the state to offer this program and is finding solutions in how technology and in-home visits can produce better health outcomes.
Sergio Bustos is 92 years young and had an accident back in November that led him to the hospital.
“He’d fallen and he seemed to be okay after that, but then he had gotten a really bad bruise on his leg and it started to swell and it turned bright red,” said Roxann Bustos, Sergio’s wife.
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Roxann says after a long night in the emergency room, the diagnosis came back as cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection.
“They said he needed IV antibiotics in the hospital so he needed to be itted and my daughter said couldn’t he do this at home and they had this program we knew nothing about, and they came back and said we can do it at home,” said Roxann.
This made Sergio the first patient to try Wellstar MCG Health’s newly launched hospital care at-home program.
Director of the MCG Center for Digital Health Matt Lyon says this is a game changer, especially for those who respond better in familiar environments.
“When your mom or dad is coming to the hospital, a lot of times they get confused about where they are and that leads to longer lengths of stay and it may result in a fall in the hospital,” said Lyon. “If we do that in their home they don’t have that confusion, disorientation, but they’re still getting care like in the hospital.”
Patients are provided equipment to monitor vital signs and a tablet for virtual visits.
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When you’re sick, you want to get to the clinic as soon as you can, but that’s simply not possible for everyone based on where you live.
“It gives us the ability to make sure we are staying connected with that patient, but normally they would be and we want to make sure we are monitoring them and giving them the same care they would be at the hospital, but in their own home,” said Lyon.
“Like they would remind me to take his vital signs and I would forget and they would remind me and if we had a question they would remind me,” said Roxann. “It was very well done.”
Although patients are monitored a lot virtually, nurses and paramedics do make multiple in-home visits, something Sergio greatly benefited from.
“For lack of a better word, it was a very pleasant experience,” said Sergio. “I got along very well with them, they got along with me. They were knowledgeable. That’s important.”
There is criteria that has to be met to be considered eligible for the Hospital at Home program.
You can’t have a condition that’s considered critical, and you have to live near the hospital in case you need to be transferred immediately.
For more information, you can visit the program’s website here.
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