ambulatoryhome

Ambulatoryhome is a model of delivering ambulatory, or outpatient, health care in a patient’s home. It uses a combination of in-person visits, telehealth consultations, and remote patient monitoring to provide non-urgent medical evaluation and treatment without the patient traveling to a clinic.

Care delivered under ambulatoryhome typically includes routine primary care, chronic disease management, post-discharge follow-up, wound care, IV therapy or infusions when feasible, medication management, and basic diagnostics performed with portable devices. A multidisciplinary team consisting of physicians, nurse practitioners or physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists, and care coordinators coordinates the plan of care and communicates with the patient and family.

Care processes involve eligibility screening, initial home assessment, development of a tailored care plan, regular monitoring of vitals and symptoms (via home devices or patient-centered technology), medication administration when needed, and escalation protocols to urgent care or emergency services if red flags appear.

Ambulatoryhome aims to improve access, support self-management, and reduce avoidable hospital visits. Benefits can include lower travel burden, higher patient satisfaction, and potential cost savings, especially for stable chronic conditions. Limitations include the need for safe home environments, adequate equipment and staffing, reimbursement policies, data privacy, and the risk that some patients may require escalation to higher levels of care when conditions worsen.

Relationship to other models: It overlaps with traditional home health services and telemedicine, but it is distinct from hospital-at-home, which provides hospital-level acute care at home, whereas ambulatoryhome focuses on outpatient services and episodic care. In sum, ambulatoryhome represents a patient-centered approach to delivering outpatient health services outside traditional clinics.