Home Hospital Supports Recovery From Major Surgery: Kimmer's Story
Home Hospital offers the same high-quality care patients receive in a Mass General Brigham hospital. Each day, patients get two home visits from a nurse, paramedic, and/or advanced practice provider. During these visits, the clinician provides on-site care, such as taking imaging, checking vital signs, drawing blood, giving medications, and physical therapy.
Following the visit, the clinician updates the patient's doctor and, when necessary, consults on emerging concerns. Between visits, the Home Hospital team remotely monitors the patient's health at all times.
Since its launch in 2022, Home Hospital has become one of the largest programs of its kind in the United States. In 2024, Mass General Brigham expanded the service to include some surgical patients.
Soon after the operation, Dr. Luckhurst identified Kimmer as a good candidate for Home Hospital for three key reasons:
- She had spent eight months battling illness or recovering in a hospital and would benefit from a change of scenery.
- Her condition had stabilized, and she only required monitoring and small adjustments to her care plan.
- She had family who could help care for her.
"At that point, I was just taking a few walks during the day and getting insulin shots," Kimmer said. "Dr. Luckhurst explained that with Home Hospital, I could be with my family, wear my own clothes, and be more comfortable. Once I heard the basics, I was sold. It sounded like a much better situation."
Not every patient is eligible for Home Hospital. The program is designed for people who are stable enough to continue recovering at home and have support in place from family, friends, or a visiting nurse. Patients must first be evaluated in the hospital to determine if Home Hospital is the right fit. They must also agree to be enrolled in the program.
For Kimmer, the timing was right—and the care was exactly what she needed.
'Just like family'
Kimmer lives in Ellenburg Depot, a tiny community near the Canadian border in upstate New York. When her condition became too complex for local hospitals to manage, she turned to Mass General for care.
In anticipation of a long postsurgical recovery in Boston, she had rented an apartment in Quincy (about 10 miles south of Mass General) for a few months. Four weeks after the operation, she left the hospital and began recovery under the care of the Home Hospital team. At the apartment, a rotating cast of family members, including her mom, daughter, twin sister, and brother, stepped in to help with day-to-day care.
Kimmer's Home Hospital team included several nurses and paramedics who visited twice daily. They did things like take her temperature, give her blood thinner shots, bathe her, and keep the area around her feeding tube clean. She was impressed with their professionalism and compassion.
"Everyone who came in already knew my situation and what needed to be done," she said. "They were amazing. After a while, they were just like family."
Their calm, confident assistance allowed Kimmer's family to relax and focus on simply being with her. "It gave them peace of mind because they could see I was getting the care I needed and everything was okay," she said.
