Multidisciplinary Case Management for Patients at High Risk of Hospitalization: Comparison of Virtual Ward Models in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada

Virtual wards are a model for delivering multidisciplinary case management to people who are at high predicted risk of unplanned acute care hospitalization. First introduced in Croydon, England, in 2006, this concept has since been adopted and adapted by health care organizations in other parts of the United Kingdom and internationally. In this article, the authors review the model of virtual wards as originally described-with its twin pillars of (1) using a predictive model to identify people who are at high risk of future emergency hospitalization, and (2) offering these individuals a period of intensive, multidisciplinary preventive care at home using the systems, staffing, and daily routines of a hospital ward. The authors then describe how virtual wards have been modified and implemented in 6 sites in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada where they are subject to formal evaluation. Like hospital wards, virtual wards vary in terms of patient selection, ward configuration, staff composition, and ward processes. Policy makers and researchers should be aware of these differences when considering the evaluation results of studies investigating the cost-effectiveness of virtual wards.