New emergency department program enables patients to recover at home safely Penn Medicine established a program to improve support for patients after emergency department visits, helping them recover at home instead of the hospital.
A new service piloted at Penn Medicine allowed a proportion of patients to avoid hospitalization by providing them with greater support after visiting the emergency department. The vast majority of the patients enrolled in the service nearly 9 out of 10 did not need to return to the hospital for care in the month that followed their initial visit. The study was published in
“The culture is shifting where we realize that hospitalization is not always the best option for patients particularly patients with chronic illness,” says one of the study’s lead authors, Austin Kilaru,
New service enables patients to recover safely at home, avoid hospitalization
A new service piloted at Penn Medicine allowed a proportion of patients to avoid hospitalization by providing them with greater support after visiting the emergency department. The vast majority of the patients enrolled in the service - nearly 9 out of 10 - did not need to return to the hospital for care in the month that followed their initial visit. The study was published in
Healthcare.
The culture is shifting where we realize that hospitalization is not always the best option for patients - particularly patients with chronic illness. We need to find better ways of helping patients not just get healthy in a hospital, but stay healthy at home - whenever they are ready to be there.
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A new service piloted at Penn Medicine allowed a proportion of patients to avoid hospitalization by providing them with greater support after visiting the emergency department. The vast majority of the patients enrolled in the service - nearly 9 out of 10 - did not need to return to the hospital for care in the month that followed their initial visit. The study was published in
Healthcare. The culture is shifting where we realize that hospitalization is not always the best option for patients - particularly patients with chronic illness, said one of the study s lead authors, Austin Kilaru, MD, an emergency physician at Penn Medicine. We need to find better ways of helping patients not just get healthy in a hospital, but stay healthy at home - whenever they are ready to be there.
iStock; Everyday Health
Fatalities tied to synthetic opioids and illegal fentanyl climbed 38.4 percent in the 12 months ending in May 2020, compared with the same period ending in May 2019, according to the CDC. The spike in overdose deaths tied to these substances was even steeper in several parts of the country, almost doubling in 10 Western states.
In addition, overdose deaths involving psychostimulants such as methamphetamine increased by 34.8 percent, exceeding the total number of fatalities involving cocaine. Overdose deaths from cocaine climbed 26.5 percent, likely due to combined use with illegally manufactured fentanyl or heroin, the CDC reports.
There are likely several reasons why drug overdose deaths have surged since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Alana Vivolo-Kantor, PhD, lead health scientist at the division of overdose prevention at the CDC in Atlanta. These include a larger supply of illegal drugs, reduced access to addiction and overdose treatment, and