A Covid-19 Lesson: Some Seriously Ill Patients Can Be Treated at Home

Joan Murray had been home with Covid-19 for about a week when she ran into trouble. She had a fever of 103 degrees and chills that sent shivers up and down her spine. Her oxygen levels were dropping, and the tightness in her chest felt “as if somebody had bound up my lungs with string.”

But the 77-year-old, a retired registered nurse who lives alone in Westbury, N.Y., was adamant that she wanted to fight the illness at home. “As a nurse, maybe I knew too much,” she said. “The last place I wanted to be was the hospital.”

So the hospital came to her.

Northwell Health, which has cared for thousands of coronavirus patients in its network of facilities in New York State, sent a nurse manager to Ms. Murray’s home in May. Covered head to toe in protective gear — gown, gloves, mask, shield and disposable bootees — she spent nearly eight hours doing an assessment.

Ms. Murray was dehydrated and in need of supplemental oxygen. Within hours, she was hooked up to an intravenous line, set up in her bedroom to replenish her fluids. A phlebotomist in an N95 mask came to draw blood, an oxygen machine was delivered to her home, and Ms. Murray was prescribed a powerful blood thinner to prevent clots.