Home Hospital

How Do You Begin Building A Home Hospital?

SonderCare Learning Center

Building a home hospital is a difficult concept for some. You may feel frustrated if your family has decided to adapt your living area to suit a home hospital layout. These feelings are common among people who are facing a serious change to their lifestyle and surroundings. Despite this, hospitals and local government services offer a lot of information and help that can guide you in setting up a home hospital.

Learn About Building A Home Hospital

As usual, it’s always good form to let your primary physician know you are building a home hospital and to take into consideration what kind of special medical considerations you require, how severe your illness or disability is, and what is best for you and your family. For example, if you need daily rehabilitation and help with a wide range of common tasks, you may need a long-term facility to ease the responsibilities of your loved ones. You may also need a specialist facility if you are experiencing more frequent emergency situations. After all these considerations, the next step is to prepare your home and locate the necessary home medical equipment. Read on to learn more about home hospice care works and how to prepare for such a situation.

Understanding Your Specific Home Hospital Needs

Some people are mortally afraid of hospitals. If you are in that category, consider getting hospital care at home. It could be slightly cheaper, more comfortable, and you can be with your loved ones throughout your recovery period. Here we hope to touch on everything to know about setting up a hospital at home. And remember, although home health care is a popular choice among the elderly and people that require palliative care for cancer and other terminal illnesses, it is also ideal if you have limited mobility, or are recovering from an injury whether young or old.

While at home, you will be under the care of trained medical professionals. A doctor will oversee your care and visit you at least once during your treatment. A physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner will check on you at home every day and be available by phone 24/7 for emergencies.

Throughout the home hospital process, your medical team will adjust your treatment to match your changing needs. You will not be alone at any point during your recovery. An around-the-clock primary caregiver will be at your side to take care of your physical needs and keep you comfortable.

Preparing Your Unique Home Hospital Space

It is no longer just inside the walls of the hospital where medicine can be practised and administered. Patients can now spend less time resting in a hospital bed, due to the myriad remote access, communications technology and care delivery technologies established in recent times. Not to mention, caregivers are more prepared than ever to watch over the welfare of their family members.

As these technologies become cheaper and easier to scale with each passing year, leaders from various corners of the health industry are looking at how to recommend patients set up their home hospital space using tech-driven at-home medical solutions to minimize costs and raise care satisfaction. But the first step is always to prepare a dedicated space for treatment and recovery. Make sure as many of the items below as possible are in place.

Finding A Safe, Comfortable and Quality Hospital Bed

A regular bed is almost never able to meet the needs of a recovering patient. A hospital bed’s design is better suited for the task, and various types are available. You should pick one that fits the patient’s recovery requirements, and it helps if the bed has at least the following features:

Side rails
Adjustable height
A remote handset to control positioning
Fully-enclosed head and footboard
Wheels for easy movability

SonderCare Beds have proven to customers worldwide year after year that there is nothing else on the market quite like it. Designed to conform to the latest international standards, this bed provides you with a sense of safety, comfort, and greater independence than standard flat or adjustable beds.

Securing A Wide, Open Recovery Room With Limited Corners and Clutter

When you approach any type of recovery whether it be a common cold to serious injury, you need to look to eliminate as much of the clutter, distractions and potential obstacles as possible. The recovery room must become a refuge for sleep, a space for mental and physical healing and overall relaxation.
The home hospital room should have enough floor space to accommodate the hospital bed and other medical equipment such as a stand assist chair. Avoid clutter that might impede taking quick action or moving the bed during an emergency. The caregiver should also have a dedicated space in the room where they can monitor the patient.

Plenty Of Outlets, Proper Lighting and Home Hospital Entertainment

Without sufficient outlets, you won’t have space to plug in necessary medical equipment. Find out what type of equipment the patient will need so you can have the right outlets installed in proper locations.
Lighting is key to the patient’s comfort and safety. The lights must not be so bright that they disturb the patient’s sleep, and not so dim they make monitoring the patient difficult.
Sufficient planning should be made to install some form of media or entertainment system to allow the patient to pass the time and allow their mind to relax. The extent of entertainment items installed in a recovery room is totally up to the patient requests, however, less clutter and anxiety is always better.

Proper Ventilation and Climate Control Promotes Proper Rehabilitation

The room should have enough windows to let in the fresh air and natural lighting. An efficient heating and cooling system should also be in place to ensure the patient’s comfort. Fans also help to slightly regulate temperatures if needed.
Especially after the transition from light to dark, temperatures become the next most critical thing to get correct so that you can promote a proper circadian rhythm and fall into a calming sleep state. Your body wants to transition into an atmosphere that is cooler, not cold, so maintaining the room at an optimum 60 degrees Fahrenheit (16 to 18 Celsius) will allow this physiological process to take place.
Of course, everyone has varying temperature sensitivities. For some, 60 degrees can sound a little too similar to sleeping outside so find a temperature that works for you that is slightly cooler than the rest of your residence.

Starting Your Hospital at Home Program

How your home hospital program will begin depends on the agency providing the home care service. The agency will arrange for the nurse and other professionals that will provide medical services.
Before starting, you must first complete intensive treatment in an actual hospital. If the doctor believes your condition is still critical, spending more time in the hospital before transitioning to home treatment may be necessary.
Once your medical team is ready, and you are well enough for hospital-at-home, an ambulance will transport you from the facility to your residence. At first, you will receive extended nursing care to ensure you remain stable and comfortable.
After the initial care, a nurse will visit at least once a day to care for your needs. Your physician will perform a daily evaluation of your recovery to determine the best therapeutic measures for continuing treatment. Depending on your condition, the physician may visit once or more per day.

Therapy at home may involve one or more of the following in-home procedures, depending on your condition:

Electrocardiograms and echocardiograms
X-rays
Oxygen therapy
Intravenous fluids and antibiotics
Respiratory therapy
Palliative care
Pharmacy services

Although in-home treatment implies that doctors won’t always see their patients regularly in person, technology and digital meetings integrated with proper home care hospital equipment may also be an incentive for doctors to refocus on patient and family relationships. Specifically, if doctors can make remote meetings more regularly it may free up some of their time and allow a single doctor or care team to stick with a person longer term, respond to their input and find professional satisfaction in their recovery over the full duration of their treatment.

But when does treatment end? Your home hospital treatment will continue until you are stable enough for discharge by the physician in charge. He or she also has the authority to recommend longer duration. If you experience complications or need treatment that you cannot receive at home, a hospital visit may be necessary. Monetarily, the fees will depend on your insurance coverage and other factors. You can pay for your hospital-at-home care through your medical insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid but the situation is always highly dependent on your country, state and precise location.

Despite all the seemingly complicated specifications required to begin building a home hospital the reality is much simpler. Talk to your physician and use local hospital resources in the planning stage and at home look to create the most calming uncomplicated recovery space you can imagine. After all, the most important thing is making sure you’re safe, comfortable and prepared to get on the road to recovery.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Creating A Home Hospital Space

Who Is Most Likely To Create A Hospital In Their Home?

Typically, a hospital at home setup is most frequent in elderly populations who are suffering from a range of ailments and mobility issues. For instance, John Hopkins’ home hospital program has treated more than 1,200 patients with a range of clinical characteristics and an average age of 77.

What Are The Main Advantages Of Creating A Hospital At Home?

Hospital services at home that allow patients to receive standard clinical treatment at home have proven to be successful in minimizing complications while reducing treatment costs by 30 percent or more, leading to many attempts to encourage their use. But broad implementation of the hospital at home model, at least in the United States has been hampered by some physician concerns about legal risk, and by the refusal of some insurance firms, to reimburse providers for home service provisions.

Related Hospital At Home Resources

Home Hospital and Recovery Room Statistics

Presbyterian Healthcare Services in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a large integrated delivery system, offers adult patients who are sick enough to be hospitalized but stable enough to be treated at home that option, and more than 92 percent take it. (commonwealthfund.org)
For specific conditions, the use of at-home care is significantly greater: nearly 60 percent of all patients with deep venous thrombosis were treated at home in 2008, as were 25 percent of all hospital patients admitted for acute cellulitis. (commonwealthfund.org)
Hospital at home programs, which enable patients to receive acute care at home, have proven effective in reducing complications while cutting the cost of care by 30 percent or more, leading to entrepreneurial efforts to promote their use. (commonwealthfund.org)
A recent study found that the cost of an acute care episode for hospital at home patients was 38 percent lower when compared to patients who received care in the hospital. (www2.deloitte.com)

Explore Home Hospital Equipment With SonderCare

Are you recently discharged from hospital, experiencing mobility issues, or in need of palliative or senior care? Enjoy a smoother recovery and get the luxury you deserve by choosing our home hospital beds. Contact us today to discuss home hospital beds, mattresses, stand assist chairs and other accessories to make your home hospice perfect for a truly comfortable experience.

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