By LEO GIOSUÈ(photo credit: SABAR HEALTH HOME HOSPITAL)
Receiving quality care at the comfort of home can make all the difference to the wellbeing of a patient, especially in the Covid-19 era, when merely setting foot in an ER could prove hazardous to some.Having choice and flexibility over where to receive treatment provides patients a sort of relief and a sense of control. It helps to avoid acquired infections common to medical facilities, prevent delirium and functional deterioration in older patients, and helps them in alleviating their levels of stress while fast-tracking the process of their recovery. Thus, to offer an efficient treatment to patients while respecting their choices, convenience, and autonomy, Dr. Ron Sabar, family medicine and palliative medicine specialist, founded Sabar Health – Home Hospital in Israel in 2005. The vision was to offer the right care at the right time and by the right professional at home while saving the need for hospitalization for adverse events.Sabar Health provides a range of Home Hospital services, including Internal Medicine at Home, Home Rehabilitation, Home Hospice and Palliative Care, and Home Psychiatric Care, all paid for by Israel's 4 HMO's.(photo credit: SABAR HEALTH HOME HOSPITAL)
Dr. Ron Sabar, Founder & Chief Medical Officer, Sabar HealthRevolutionizing the Idea of HospitalizationUntil now, patients in need of hospitalization due to infections, viruses or deterioration in chronic conditions, were admitted to hospital internal medicine wards. Many of these patients, most of whom are elderly, tend to contract additional infections, suffer from delirium, and other effects caused by being hospitalized. Until now, this was the only option.But in the past 3 years, Sabar Health has been offering an excellent alternative – Internal Medicine at Home, financed by Israel's HMO's. this service, offered nationwide, includes a team of a physician and a nurse, each conducting at least one daily house call, providing the full treatment the patient needs, until their release."There's no need for an elderly woman with an infection to be admitted to an overcrowded internal medicine ward and lie in a hospital bed for several days, surrounded by strangers and other patients, exposed to all kinds of infections, when all the treatment she needs is an IV three times a day, which she can easily receive at the comfort of her own home," says Dr. Itamar Offer, CEO of Sabar Health.This service, which Sabar Health pioneered, is designed for patients suffering from acute pneumonia, urinary tract infection, skin infections, or deterioration in CHF, COPD, and other chronic conditions, requiring hospitalization.In the era of Covid-19, when people are wary of hospitals, and particularly ER's and internal medicine wards, this service is the perfect solution."Sabar Health was established based on the notion that the best place for patients is their natural environment – their homes," Says Dr. Ron Sabar, Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Sabar Health. "Having cared for over 35,000 patients in the past fifteen years, we know this to be true, and this year more than ever. Patients who can be treated at home, should be able to have the choice to do so."(photo credit: SABAR HEALTH HOME HOSPITAL)Providing Four Home-Hospital WardsIn addition to the Home Internal Medicine service, Sabar Health, which was named "Israel's most innovative Home Healthcare Provider of 2020 by the Healthcare Insights organization, provides a range of services in three other home hospital wards: Home Hospice and Palliative Care, Home Rehabilitation, and Home Psychiatry Care.The home hospice and palliative care department is designed for patients coping with terminal illnesses in the final stages. The treatment focuses on offering palliative care, symptom management, psychosocial and spiritual well-being. Each patient is allocated with a physician, a nurse, and a social worker who are dedicated to offering emotional and social support for the patients and their families. It enables the patients to spend the last period of their life surrounded by their loved ones, in their own bed.The home acute rehabilitation department of Sabar Health offers treatments for multidisciplinary post-hospitalization rehabilitation. In this case, a multidisciplinary team is assigned to patients to help them return to their daily routine as easily and quickly as possible.“The rehabilitation process in the real-life setting of the patients maximizes its efficacy and has proven to be shorter in duration compared to institutional rehabilitation,” elucidates Dr. Sabar.The Home Psychiatry department dedicated to providing an intense care service for mental health patients. Patients with an acute psychotic episode or low adherence to treatment are at a higher risk of relapse. Therefore, the Sabar Health team takes full medical responsibility for such patients, and relentlessly works to help them get back to their daily routine. This enables the organization to shorten the institutional hospitalization and prevent the “revolving door” of recurring hospitalization.Offering Patient-Centered CareSince its inception, Sabar Health has been rigorously working to make healthcare accessible throughout the country, regardless of the age of the patient or the nature of their illness. Moving ahead, it aims to continue its patient-centered care approach while taking initiatives to enhance its services. To further advance the hospital at home model and ecosystem, Dr. Offer has founded the WHAHC – World Hospital At Home Congress which focuses on sharing experiences and best-practices regarding the hospital at home. Last year, it organized the 1st WHAHC conference in Madrid which gathered more than 430 professionals from 39 countries. The next even is planned for 2021 in Vienna, Austria.
