Hospital at Home – are hospitals going home?

Hospitals as institutions providing care for the sick have been in existence over the past 2500 years and are ever evolving. Global demographic trends in population ageing is posing unprecedented challenges to hospital care with increasing demands for hospital occupancy and escalating health care costs. Although hospital care has been reformed in the recent past with many technological advancements and improvements in patient care, overcrowding of hospitals is happening world over. Longevity with multi-morbidity makes elderly populations more susceptible to frequent hospital admissions and prolonged hospital stays which adds heavily to health care budgets. Caring for people in their own homes, the concept of “Hospital at Home” is becoming increasingly popular in many countries in the world. This article explores various Hospital at Home programs and their success and challenges.