How 4 Providers Successfully Launched Hospital-at-Home Programs

As the U.S. health care system faces rising capacity constraints and challenges in care access, hospital-at-home and telehealth programs have emerged as powerful tools for delivering patient-centered, evidence-based care beyond hospital walls.

Clinical and administrative leaders across the country shared how their organizations are scaling these solutions during the 2025 American Hospital Association Leadership Summit last week. They shared how they are improving outcomes, reducing readmissions and eliminating disparities.

Advocate Health: Rapid HaH Launch

Advocate Health, for example, rapidly launched its Hospital at Home (HaH) program at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — a 10-day sprint from concept to first admission. Since then, the program has expanded to 12 facilities across two metropolitan areas, serving more than 16,500 patients and avoiding more than 60,000 inpatient bed days, said Daniel E. Davis, M.D., senior medical director of continuing health at the Charlotte, N.C., site.

The hybrid model combines twice-daily in-home visits from nurses or paramedics with daily virtual provider check-ins, remote monitoring, access to lab services, specialty consults and pharmacy support.

The result: hospital-grade care delivered in the comfort of home, with better outcomes and higher patient satisfaction. Advocate’s 2024 readmission rate for HaH patients was 0.93, outperforming traditional hospital settings (1.09), and patient satisfaction scores were significantly higher than that of brick-and-mortar hospitals.

Advocate’s program is payer-agnostic — focused not on insurance coverage, but on clinical appropriateness.

“When you look at total value, the ROI is clear,” Davis said. “You create capacity, reduce readmissions and have almost zero utilization of skilled nursing facilities. You’re creating a safe place for patients to land in the continuum of care.”

Mass General Brigham: Outscoring Apple on Satisfaction

Mass General Brigham (MGB) likewise has built one of the nation’s largest home hospital programs, unified across five hospitals and serving more than 80% of eligible patients in its service area. Heather O’Sullivan, R.N., president of Healthcare at Home, emphasized MGB’s conviction that home is the best site of care whenever possible — not just for comfort, but for quality and equitable health outcomes.

A randomized controlled trial of its program found a 7% 30-day readmission rate vs. 23% for inpatient care, with zero inappropriate medication errors and fewer safety events.

Patients in the MGB program benefit from a full spectrum of clinical and ancillary services, from remote monitoring and 24/7 command center support to in-home labs, X-rays, physical therapy and medically tailored meal delivery. “Our Net Promoter Score is higher than Apple, and we’re very proud of that,” O’Sullivan said. Patients report better rest, more personalized care and higher levels of trust.

MGB also provides fair and just access to care by adapting its care model to support unhoused patients. In partnership with the New England Center and Home for Veterans, MGB began providing hospital-level care on-site at a VA Safe Haven residence for veterans experiencing homelessness. The initiative reflects the session’s theme of addressing structural barriers to care and expanding home hospital access to all populations.

OSU Wexner Medical Center: Reaching Patients Where They Are

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center has seen similar success with its Hospital Care at Home (HCaH) model, launched in 2023. The program serves patients in disadvantaged neighborhoods using a hybrid insource/outsource model, and has enrolled more than 500 patients to date.

Rachit Thariani, chief administrative officer of post-acute and home-based care, said patients enrolled in HCaH had significantly lower 30-day readmission rates — just 6.5% in FY2024 and 9.2% in FY2025 — compared with more than 15% among those who declined participation. Importantly, HCaH patients reported overwhelming satisfaction, with 95% rating their experience a 9 or 10 out of 10.

Iris Telehealth: Improving Patient and Provider Satisfaction

In tandem with hospital-at-home programs, behavioral telehealth is transforming access to mental health care. Tom Milam, M.D., chief medical officer of Iris Telehealth and president of Iris Medical Group, shared how the company supports systems across the care continuum — from emergency departments (EDs) and inpatient units to outpatient therapy and primary care — with on-demand and scheduled virtual behavioral health services.

Telehealth has helped organizations reduce psychiatric ED consult times by more than 60%, lower inpatient length of stay and improve depression symptoms by 38%. In one example, Texas Health Resources saw a 60% reduction in wait times from referral to first visit, with 18,000 visits delivered in the program’s first year.

Milam noted that Iris’ integrated telehealth solutions — supported by a behavioral health command center, risk scoring and revenue cycle analytics — allow health systems to scale behavioral care delivery efficiently while enhancing both patient and provider satisfaction.

All four speakers emphasized that the future of health care lies in scalable, tech-enabled, home-based solutions that close gaps in access to care.