July 21, 2020 – Northwell Health (Manhattan, NY), which has cared for thousands of COVID-19 patients in its network of New York State facilities, sent nurses to care for seriously ill COVID-19 patients at home to ease the stress on its health system capacities.
Northwell created wraparound home care services on the fly to deal with the surge of coronavirus cases in New York this spring.
Now, physicians in Miami, FL, are discussing the program with Northwell doctors as several Miami hospitals have reached capacity.
Medicare relaxed requirements for such care in response to the coronavirus epidemic. Now patients are considered homebound if a medical practitioner advises them not to leave the home because of a diagnosis of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 or a condition that makes them more susceptible to contracting the virus.