Study Says Patients Like Mayo Clinic’s “Care Hotel” Virtual Care Approach for Surgical Care

A new study has concluded that Mayo Clinic’s hybrid Care Hotel is working well for patients, offering them an opportunity to handle stressful aspects of surgery in a lower-stress environment and saving them money.

Mayo’s Care Hotel is a virtual medicine hybrid care model implemented at Mayo’s Florida location in July 2020. Mayo designed the model, which focuses on serving patients following small and low-risk surgical procedures, to speed up recovery as well as preserve hospital capacity for those that need it.

In a study published in the journal Annals of Medicine and Surgery, the authors describe the experience and feedback received from 102 patients admitted to the Care Hotel.

Patients were referred to the on-campus hotel by either a primary surgical or interventional team before surgery. Once signed up, patients were educated about the program, which offers vital sign monitoring, nursing, neurologic assessments, dressing changes, urinary catheter, drain management and education, as well as breakthrough non-opioid pain and nausea medication, which is administered by paramedics.

Once introduced to the program, patients were given the option to stay at the Care Hotel after surgery if they wished. Patients who chose the hybrid option were checked into the Hotel post-surgery and given biometric devices for vital sign monitoring along with a tablet to conduct video visits.

Of the 102 patient responses, nine were excluded due to missing information. Of those who remained, 87% of patients had a positive experience of the Care Hotel model and 94% were likely to recommend the program to others.

Patient comments included praise for how easy the technology was to use, how seamless the care transition was and the relief from the burden of care for family members. They also spoke favorably about the low cost of staying there.

The authors echo the latter sentiment, noting that the Care Hotel is likely cheaper for Mayo to manage than a traditional hospital stay, though they don’t seem to have gathered any exact dollar figures for comparison.

What’s interesting about this model is that it’s part of a multi-pronged hospital-at-home effort.  Around the same time in 2020, Mayo set plans to roll out a range of advanced services to patients in their homes, working in partnership with tech vendor Medically Home. This program’s services include infusions, skilled nursing, medications, lab and imaging, behavioral health and rehabilitation.

This, in turn, is part of a larger initiative known as the Mayo Clinic Platform, which looks at ways to leverage emerging technologies such as AI, connected health and natural language processing.

All told, Mayo seems to be pretty far ahead of most of its peers with its broader virtual efforts, which must have called for a very substantial long-term investment. As I see it, it’s hitting all of the right marks with its plans.

Though things could change within say, five years, I doubt most health systems will be able to catch up and build this type of program anytime soon. That being said, I think many are going to try. This is definitely the direction the industry as a whole is headed.

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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