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Observational Study
. 2021 Jul 28:25:20.281.
doi: 10.7812/TPP/20.281.

Description and Early Results of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California COVID-19 Home Monitoring Program

Dan Ngoc Huynh  1 , Alyssa Millan  2 , Earl Quijada  3 , Deborah John  4 , Shariq Khan  5 , Tadashi Funahashi  6
Affiliations
Observational Study

Description and Early Results of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California COVID-19 Home Monitoring Program

Dan Ngoc Huynh et al. Perm J. .

Abstract

Introduction: The Southern California region of Kaiser Permanente developed a COVID-19 Home Monitoring program as an alternative to hospital admission to decrease hospital bed days and mitigate the adverse effects of a surge. To date, more than 15,000 patients have been enrolled and approximately 10% of enrolled patients have been escalated to hospital care for timely treatment. Our objective is to describe our COVID-19 Home Monitoring program and present early results.

Methods: We conducted an observational retrospective study of all patients enrolled in the COVID-19 Home Monitoring program between April 13, 2020 through February 12, 2021. Data analysis conducted includes patient demographics, enrollment, entry points, length of stay, mortality, additional treatment, utilization, adherence, satisfaction, and alert triggers.

Results: A total of 12,461 of 13,055 patients (95.5%) recovered and completed the program, 1387 patients (10.6%) were admitted to the hospital, and 20 patients (0.2%) died while they were being monitored at home. The mortality rate at 30 days from enrollment was 1.6%. Hospital length of stay for ambulatory patients receiving oxygen only was 5.4 days compared to 3.1 days for those ambulatory patients receiving oxygen, dexamethasone, and remdesivir.

Conclusion: COVID-19 home monitoring appears to be safe and effective. Initial data suggest it can serve as an alternative to hospitalization, decreasing hospital length of stay when patients receive therapies in the ambulatory setting otherwise reserved for the hospital. Initial results of this Home Monitoring program appear to be promising, and a longer term prospective study is warranted.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure Statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
High-level workflow. CHM = COVID-19 Home Monitoring; ED = emergency department; ox = oximeter.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Comorbidities, obesity, vital signs, age, gender (COVAS) score. BMI = body mass index; neuro = neurological; O2 = oxygen; PCP = primary care provider.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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