NTT DATA Announces Hospital at Home Solution to Overcome Challenges and Requirements of Home Care for Health Systems

PLANO, Texas – March 10, 2022 – NTT DATA, a global business and IT leader, today announced a solution to help U.S. healthcare systems develop new care models that expand care into a patient’s home. Hospital at Home programs serve patients with conditions that meet the criteria for hospitalization yet can be safely treated in a home environment.

The Hospital at Home care model is poised to be a key solution addressing many of the current struggles of health systems and patients. This is due in part to the successful implementation and adoption of telehealth, a Hospital at Home prerequisite, which skyrocketed during the pandemic. The American Hospital Association reports that hospital at home care makes good economic sense, generates positive experiences and superior medical outcomes. It also allows for a more flexible working environment for healthcare providers.

“Currently, our healthcare systems are strained, struggling to meet the patient demand as well as maintain key staff,” said Lisa Esch, Chief of Strategy, Innovation and Provider Industry Solutions, NTT DATA Services. “At the same time, consumers are demanding better, more personalized experiences. By expanding care into a patient’s home, healthcare systems will reduce the burden on their hospitals as well as provide a more personalized, dignified and private experience for patients.”

While the idea of house calls is not new, transitioning care out of the hospital is complex and requires strategic planning. Healthcare systems and providers must determine whether patients have adequate and persistent broadband connectivity, collect and manage the medical data that travels from one endpoint to another, and implement well-considered operational practices for the use of that data.

NTT DATA’s Hospital at Home solution offers a scalable digital platform to deliver care effectively and securely. It leverages a simple and integrated digital system architecture that enables at-home care technologies to work seamlessly with the hospital. Grounded with software that bridges administrative and clinical data, the all-in-one solution provides three key support functions:

• Command Center: interconnects patients and clinicians, providing intelligent management of remote devices, rollup of care activities to a single encounter, communication management, and analytics and AI to predict future needs and drive improvements.
• Acute Rapid Response: collects and transmits data for accurate real-time care through remote means; manages information; supports audio and video capabilities; and provides for management of connectivity issues, privacy and security, partnerships for tech install and support, and applications for patient/clinician engagement.
• Clinical Innovation: captures ways to advance remote care delivery capabilities through robotics and automation, augmented and virtual reality tools, remote imaging options, smart beds and other advanced, in-home monitoring technologies, and analytics and AI.

To succeed, these programs need the appropriate resources, roles, organizational culture, and reimbursement models. They also require a careful blending of technical and medical operations.

“Moving care into the home requires thinking through a myriad of details and mastering new workflows in order to deliver the quality care at home that your patients require,” said Richard Swafford, Ph.D., Healthcare Industry Consulting Director, NTT DATA Services. “The good news is that it is not ‘far-future innovation’. It is achievable with today’s technology for those health systems that are willing, or needing, to take the next steps.”

Learn more about how health systems can meet demands for hospital-level in-home care in NTT DATA’s recent whitepaper, Hospital at Home: Making Home the Focal Point for Care.