The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for the U.S. healthcare system due to the mismatch between healthcare system capacity and patient demand. The healthcare industry has been a slow adopter of digital innovation due to the conventional belief that humans need to be at the center of every healthcare delivery task. In the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, artificial intelligence (AI) may be used to carry out specific tasks such as pre-hospital triage and allow clinicians to deliver care at scale. Recognizing that the majority of COVID-19 cases are mild and do not require hospitalization, Partners HealthCare implemented an automated pre-hospital triage solution to direct patients to the appropriate care setting before they showed up at the emergency department, which would otherwise consume resources, expose other patients and staff to potential viral transmission, and further exacerbate supply-and demand mismatching. Although the use of AI has been well-established in other industries to optimize supply and demand matching, the introduction of AI to perform tasks remotely that were traditionally performed in-person by clinical staff represents a significant milestone in healthcare operations strategy.

Intensive care unit extubations at night did not have higher likelihood of reintubation, LOS, or mortality compared to those during the day. Since patients should be extubated as soon as they meet parameters in order to potentially decrease complications of mechanical ventilation, these data provide no support for delaying extubation until daytime.

The $1 trillion industry of acute hospital care in the United States is shifting from inside the walls of the hospital to patient homes. To tackle the limitations of current hospital care in the United States, on November 25, 2020, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that the acute hospital care at home waiver would reimburse for “home hospital” services. A “home hospital” is the home‐based provision of acute services usually associated with the traditional inpatient hospital setting. Prior work suggests that home hospital care can reduce costs, maintain quality and safety, and improve patient experiences for select acutely ill adults who require hospital‐level care. However, most emergency physicians are unfamiliar with the evidence of benefits demonstrated by home hospital services, especially for older adults. Therefore, the lead author solicited narrative inputs on this topic from selected experts in emergency medicine and home hospital services with clinical experience, publications, and funding on home hospital care. Then we sought to identify information most relevant to the practice of emergency medicine. We outline the proven and potential benefits of home hospital services specific to older adults compared to traditional acute care hospitalization with a focus on the emergency department.