Hospitals are buying up housing units, helping ‘stranded’ patients find a home
October 7, 2019
DENVER – One patient at Denver Health, the city’s largest safety net hospital, occupied a bed for more than four years – a hospital record of 1,558 days.
Another admitted for a hard-to-treat bacterial infection needed eight weeks of at-home IV antibiotics, but had no home.
A third, with dementia, came to the hospital after being released from the Denver County Jail. His family refused to take him back.
In the first half of this year alone, the hospital treated more than 100 long-term patients. All had medical issues that led to their initial hospitalization. But none of the patients had a medical reason for remaining in the hospital for most of their stay.