Future directions: Alternative approaches to traditional hospital care - Home hospital

The acute hospital may be a difficult and frightening environment for many older patients and is an expensive site of care for payers. Home hospital is an emerging model of care which can help older persons avoid a hospitalization for an acute illness. Several models of home hospital have been and are being developed and undergoing evaluation. The hypotheses underlying these evaluations is that home hospital can provide care that is comparable to acute hospital care with equal or better clinical, functional, social, and economic outcomeS. Such data are important to generate, lest the model be pushed for economic reasons alone. If successful, home hospital will likely be one of several care models, along with home care, subacute or transitional care, and other multidisciplinary comprehensive community-based programs such as PACE, that will be offered by medical centers that focus on geriatric care.