Phyllis Petruzzelli spent the week before Christmas struggling to breathe. When she went to the emergency department on Dec. 26, the doctor at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital, near her home in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood, said she had pneumonia and needed hospitalization.
Then the doctor proposed something that made Petruzzelli nervous: Instead of being admitted to the hospital, she could go back home and let the hospital come to her.
As a "hospital-at-home" patient, Petruzzelli learned, she would get home visits from doctors and nurses who would come twice a day and perform any needed tests or bloodwork.
A wireless patch, a little bigger than her index finger, would be affixed to her skin to track her vital signs and send a steady stream of data to the hospital. If she had any questions, she could talk face-to-face via video chat anytime with a nurse or doctor at the hospital.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Remember when the doctor came to your house when you were sick or delivering?
ReplyDeleteThe old notion of the hospital being the place you go to die is more a reality than it used to be, with drug-resistant bugs in the air and on every person, floor, wall, air handling system and piece of equipment.
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