“I think you feel better and get healthier sooner.”

Chest discomfort and shortness of breath landed David in the emergency room at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. “I thought I was having a heart attack,” he says. “It turns out it was more of an anxiety attack.” Congestive heart failure was to blame for his symptoms, and he needed IV medications and continued care.  

Within a couple of hours of his arrival in the ER, David was offered the opportunity to finish his course of treatment at home with the Penn State Health Home Recovery Care program. “When they came to me with the proposal to go home, the smile on my face was from one temple to the other temple. That felt real good.” 

The reason for David’s huge smile was simple: “Nobody likes to be in the hospital. I preferred to be at home.” Less than five hours after he first came to the ER worried he was having a heart attack, David was home. As part of his care, he was given remote monitoring equipment, a nurse visited him twice a day to assess his progress, and he received IV medication to help manage his symptoms.  

During his time in the program, David says the nursing staff were a big asset to his care. “They were very polite and knew what they were doing. They were fantastic, honestly. I feel like they did more than they had to do to make me feel comfortable.” 

Along with nursing care, a tablet was provided to David for virtual physician visits. “It worked well—it was no problem at all,” he related. In fact, he found the technology used in his care to be “a fun thing to [use], actually. It was something different to keep me busy, a change of pace.” 

But David says the best part of the Penn State Health Home Recovery Care program is “just being at home, in your own environment. It’s so much more comfortable. As long as you do what you’re supposed to do to get well, you can do what you want and move around because it’s your own home.” 

Asked whether he would recommend the Penn State Health Home Recovery Care program to other patients, he emphatically stated, “I would definitely recommend it. As long as they keep this program going, there’s going to be a lot of people getting healthier and being happier at home. I think you feel better and get healthier sooner.”