Hospital Days Reduced for Moderate and Severe COVID-19 Patients Through a Home Monitoring Program With Oxygen

Abstract

While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to strain the healthcare system, it has also expanded telemedicine. There is a subset of hospitalized moderate to severe COVID-19 patients requiring oxygen but no other intervention. This is a retrospective study of patients ≥18 years with moderate to severe COVID-19 that participated in a home monitoring program with supplemental oxygen (HMP-O₂) (N = 25). For study outcomes, HMP-O₂ participants were compared to patients meeting the same inclusion criteria but did not participate in the program (N = 60). On average, the HMP-O₂ patients spent 5.8 days (±5.5 days) in the hospital compared to 8.12 days (±5.5 days) for non-program patients. This resulted in 19% cost-savings for HMP-O₂ patients. Lessons learned from this program can be applied to future HMPs for either COVID-19 or other conditions that would benefit from telecare.