New model lets patients get hospital care at home

Those picked get 24/7 access to medical teams through teleconsultations, home visits

- Clara Chong

Selected patients who would normally spend time in hospital can now recover at home with the help of mobile medical teams, in an effort to allow them to get better ina familiar setting while helping to ease the hospital bed crunch.

Up to 2,000 patients can be treated at home in this manner over the next two years in a trial at National University Health System NUHS@Home), Singapore General Hospital SGH@Home) and Yishun Health Medical Home, with plans to rope in more hospitals later. Each hospital has a special team trained in caring for the home-based patients.

The new care model, called the Mobile Inpatient Care Home MIC@Home), which was announced on Thursday, increases a patient’s comfort, reduces hospital-acquired infections, improves manpower efficiency and increases bed capacity without the need to build more inpatient wards in hospitals, said Mr Lai Yi Feng, senior manager and project lead of MIC@Home.

It is especially important as Singapore’s population ages, leading to a growing demand for inpatient care with insufficient manpower to staff wards.