Beyond hospital walls: The integrated community homecare network model (YEL 2026)

Authors: Shamma AlMutawa (Department of Health, Abu Dhabi UAE), Dr Gal Ben-Haim (Sheba Medical Center, Israel), Anass Moutki (Emirates Hospital Group, Dubai UAE), Maxwell Nicholson (Cedars-Sinai, USA), Kushagra Vashishth (Mumbai, India) and Sonny Adi Wijaya, MD (Mandaya Hospital, Indonesia).

Reviewers: Dr Natalia Allué Orduña (Fundacio Sanitaria Mollet, Spain) and Dr Abel Tesfaye Legese (Yanet General Hospital, Ethiopia).

Alumni mentor for the group: Dr Supriya Sarkar (Shalby Hospital, India).

Background: Healthcare systems worldwide are facing a common challenge: increasing demand driven by aging populations, rising chronic disease prevalence, and escalating healthcare costs. The Integrated Community Homecare Network Model (ICHN) offers a comprehensive solution by extending care beyond hospital walls through the integration of telehealth, remote patient monitoring, mobile clinical teams, community partnerships, and intelligent care coordination.

Objectives: To propose and evaluate an Integrated Community Homecare Network Model that enables safe, scalable, and patient-centered healthcare delivery beyond traditional hospital settings.

Methods: This is a perspective piece, not a systematic review, though it is evidence-informed. The group drew on peer-reviewed studies, systematic reviews, economic evaluations, and health policy reports published between January 2015 and December 2024 on acute and sub-acute home-based care in our six focus geographies, searched across PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and relevant gray literature (including Commonwealth Fund and RAND Corporation reporting, and Ministry of Health materials from Singapore, Israel, and GCC states).

Results: The Data show us that HaH models are consistently non-inferior, and in several analyses superior, to inpatient care on mortality and readmission, although effect sizes vary by condition and setting rather than converging on one figure.

Conclusion: Integrated Community Homecare Networks, built on four interdependent pillars – a centralized command and control hub, a mobile workforce, diagnostic logistics and pharmacy, and community partnerships and augmented by artificial intelligence and remote monitoring, are a viable, cost-competitive complement to inpatient hospitalization.  

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