FIG. 1.

In the Hospital-at-Home model, patients who experience an acute event first receive care in the emergency department (“A” pathway). For patients who meet inpatient criteria, the traditional pathway would lead to a hospital admission. In the Hospital-at-Home model, patients receive their workup in the emergency department and are then diverted to receive inpatient services at home. Alternatively, an acute event can trigger the involvement of a primary care physician (“B” pathway). The primary care physician can bypass the emergency department, triage the patient, and render Inpatient-at-Home services in a similar manner to Hospital-at-Home, but without the preemptive emergency department encounter.