Yale New Haven Health launches home infusion program

New Haven, CT (Sept. 9, 2022) – Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS) has launched their home infusion program, expanding access to care at home, improving patient convenience and reducing barriers and disruptions in care. The Home Infusion Center is located at the YNHHS Regional Operations Center in West Haven and with a total area of 8,475 square feet, it’s the largest of its kind in Connecticut.

“Implementing home infusion services for our patients is an important step forward in today’s healthcare environment where patients can receive safe, high-quality care without leaving their homes,” said Lorraine Lee, SVP, Clinical Operations, Yale New Haven Health. “This investment will serve all our patients well, as drug therapies can be given safely and with the same standards of care as when administered in the hospital setting.”

Eligible patients across Connecticut will be able to receive infusion treatments at home for conditions that until now may have required a hospital or infusion clinic visit. Infusions will be mixed/dispensed by the Yale New Haven Health Home Infusion Pharmacy, education and administration provided by an infusion nurse and will cover a range of needs from routine intravenous hydration, parenteral nutrition, antibiotic therapy and immune and monoclonal therapies.

“We’re very proud to be implementing the only health system integrated program like this in Connecticut,” said LeeAnn Miller, VP and chief pharmacy officer, Yale New Haven Health. “The flexibility this will offer patients and families will be a model for care that increases access and put the needs of our patients first.”

Home Infusion offers patients independence and a better quality of life by providing them their treatments in the comforts of home within a schedule that best fits their needs. It eliminates travel costs, excessive time spent travelling to and from infusion sites and in waiting rooms and minimizes disruptions to daily life. It minimizes inpatient stays, allowing for beds that would have been used for infusion to instead accommodate other patients.

“By expanding at-home care we are taking even more steps to ensuring treatment remains accessible during a pandemic surge, transportation challenges or other care access issues our community might face,” said Gene Decaminada, pharmacy services manager, YNHHS.

The YNHHS Home Infusion Services will feature:

• Specially designed ‘clean room’, where compounded sterile products are prepared

• Product roll-out in phases to benefit YNHHS patients including:

‒ Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) for all adult and pediatric inpatients

‒ TPN for at-home patients

‒ Specialty infusion medications for at-home patients

Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS), the largest and most comprehensive healthcare system in Connecticut, is recognized for advanced clinical care, quality, service, cost effectiveness and commitment to improving the health status of the communities it serves. YNHHS includes five hospitals – Bridgeport, Greenwich, Lawrence + Memorial, Westerly and Yale New Haven hospitals, several specialty networks and Northeast Medical Group, a non-profit medical foundation with several hundred community-based and hospital-employed physicians. YNHHS is affiliated with Yale University and Yale Medicine, the clinical practice of the Yale School of Medicine and the largest academic multi-specialty practice in New England. Yale New Haven Hospital is the primary teaching hospital of Yale School of Medicine. www.ynhhs.org