MIC@Home in Singapore: A Caregiver's Guide to Hospital-at-Home and What to Stock

If a doctor at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore General Hospital, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Changi General Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital or one of the NUHS hospitals offers to send your parent home "as an inpatient", most families ask the same two questions. Is this safe? And what do we need to have at home?

This guide answers both, from the perspective of the people who end up doing the day-to-day caring. EMIS+ is a nurse-led medical supply store in Singapore, and a growing share of our home-delivery orders now go to households whose relative is on a hospital-at-home episode.

What is MIC@Home in Singapore?

MIC@Home stands for Mobile Inpatient Care @ Home. It is run by the public hospitals under the Ministry of Health (MOH), developed through the MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation. The patient is formally admitted to hospital, but the bed is at home.

The care team combines four things: remote clinical monitoring of vital signs, teleconsultations, physical home visits by doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, and escalation protocols that bring the patient back to the ward if their condition changes. Care workers may visit daily, typically for an initial five-day period, to check vital signs, help with medication, assist with showering and support wound care.

The programme ran as a regulatory sandbox for two years before MOH made it a mainstream inpatient service on 1 April 2024. In the first year after mainstreaming, close to 6,000 patients were enrolled, substituting nearly 30,000 hospital bed-days.

Is hospital care at home actually safe?

This is the question that matters most to families, and it has been formally evaluated rather than assumed.

MOH's clinical evaluation found MIC@Home was non-inferior to conventional inpatient care on the outcomes that count: inpatient mortality, escalation of care, 30-day unplanned readmission and 30-day emergency department re-attendance. A separate audit found that 98.8% of audited episodes were appropriate and genuinely acute, and that 100% of cases were clinically safe to be cared for at home.

Two points worth holding onto. First, "non-inferior" is a specific statistical claim about the studied population, not a promise that home is right for every patient. Second, the safety record depends on the selection criteria being applied properly, which is the hospital team's job, not yours. If you disagree with the assessment, say so before discharge, not after.

Who is eligible for MIC@Home?

The target group is clinically stable patients who still need acute care, and who can either self-care or have adequate caregiver support at home. Typical candidates have an established treatment plan built around medication, intravenous antibiotics or intravenous fluids.

In practice the assessment looks at three things:

• The condition. Stable, with a clear treatment plan and a predictable course. Common examples include infections needing a course of IV antibiotics.
• The person. Able to participate in their own care, or supported by someone who can.
• The home. Reachable by the care team, with space for equipment, working power supply and mobile connectivity for remote monitoring.

Caregiver capacity is a genuine eligibility factor, not a formality. If nobody in the household can realistically be present, tell the team. Saying yes to a home admission you cannot staff helps no one.

What does the hospital provide, and what do families buy?

Because MIC@Home is an inpatient episode, treatment is the hospital's responsibility. The IV antibiotics, the infusion equipment, the monitoring devices, the prescribed dressings for the wound the team is actively managing, the visits themselves: those come from the hospital, and are billed as an inpatient stay.

What families typically end up buying is the everyday layer around that. In our experience the recurring gaps are:

• Dressing-change consumables between visits. Sterile gauze, saline or wound cleanser, tape or retention bandage, non-sterile gloves and a clinical waste bag. A nurse visits on a schedule; life does not. See our guide to cleaning a wound with saline versus antiseptic.
• Skin protection. Barrier cream or barrier film for skin under adhesives, around drains or exposed to moisture. Adhesive remover, so tape changes do not strip fragile skin.
• Incontinence and moisture management. Adult pull-ups or pads, disposable underpads for the bed, and a barrier product to prevent incontinence-associated dermatitis.
• Pressure injury prevention. If your relative is spending most of the day in bed, this is the risk that creeps up quietly. Our guide on preventing pressure injuries at home covers repositioning and surface choices.
• Basic equipment. A digital thermometer, a blood pressure monitor and a pulse oximeter, so you can give the tele-review team a number rather than an impression. Check with the care team first: they may already be supplying monitoring devices you should use instead.
• Hand hygiene. Alcohol hand rub at the bedside, used before and after every contact with the wound, line or pouch.

Ask the discharging nurse to write down exactly which of these the hospital will supply and which you should buy. Getting that list before the ambulance leaves saves a scramble on day two.

What about patients with a stoma or a chronic wound?

A hospital-at-home episode does not pause the rest of someone's care. If your relative already has an ostomy, they still need their usual pouches, baseplates, barrier rings and adhesive remover on their normal schedule, and the acute admission is not the moment to run low. The same applies to a long-standing leg ulcer or diabetic foot ulcer being managed by a community nurse.

Two practical habits help. Keep at least two weeks of routine ostomy or wound supplies in the house at all times, so an unplanned admission never coincides with an empty box. And keep a written list of the exact REF codes on your boxes; brand names alone are not enough to reorder correctly. Our guide to buying ostomy supplies in Singapore explains how the codes map to sizes.

How is MIC@Home billed?

MIC@Home is billed as an inpatient episode. That means the usual national financing applies to the hospital's charges, in the same way it would for a ward stay, and you should ask the hospital's business office to confirm the estimate and subsidy position for your specific case before you agree. Fees, subsidies and MediSave withdrawal limits change, and the hospital is the authoritative source for your bill, not a blog post.

What is not part of the inpatient bill is the household supply layer described above. Those consumables are ordinary out-of-pocket purchases. For families managing a long stretch of home care, buying dressings and incontinence supplies in bulk rather than in single packs is usually the single biggest saving available.

Six things to do before your relative comes home

1. Get the escalation number and the escalation criteria in writing. Which number do you call at 3am, and what specifically should trigger the call?
2. Clarify the supply split. Written list of what the hospital brings versus what you buy.
3. Set up one clean surface. A wiped table with a clean towel, used only for dressing changes and medication. Not the dining table mid-meal.
4. Stock the everyday kit. Gauze, cleanser, tape, gloves, hand rub, waste bags, barrier cream.
5. Check the room. Space for the care team to work on both sides of the bed, a working plug near the bed, clear floor between bed and toilet.
6. Agree who is on duty. Name the person present for each visit window. "Someone will be around" is how visits get missed.

When to escalate

Your care team will give you their own criteria, and those take priority over any general list. As a general prompt to call rather than wait, changes worth reporting include new or worsening confusion, breathlessness at rest, fever that breaks through treatment, a wound that becomes newly painful, hot, swollen or malodorous, spreading redness around a wound or IV site, and any sudden fall in urine output. If you are unsure whether something counts, call. That is what the escalation line is for.

Frequently asked questions

Is MIC@Home the same as home nursing or home care?

No. Home nursing and home personal care are long-term community services. MIC@Home is an acute inpatient admission delivered at home, with a defined episode, hospital doctors in charge and an escalation route back to the ward. They can run alongside each other, but they are funded and staffed differently.

Can we say no to MIC@Home and stay in the ward?

Yes. It is offered as a choice to eligible patients. If your household cannot support it, say so during the assessment rather than after discharge.

Which hospitals in Singapore run MIC@Home?

It operates across the public hospitals, including TTSH, KTPH, Woodlands Health, SGH, SKH, CGH, KKH and NUHS sites. Availability depends on the condition being treated and on capacity at the time, so ask your own hospital team.

Do I need to buy monitoring equipment?

Ask first. The programme includes remote monitoring and the team may supply the devices they want readings from. A household thermometer, blood pressure monitor and pulse oximeter are still useful, but use the team's devices for the readings they act on.

What supplies should I have at home during a MIC@Home admission?

Sterile gauze, wound cleanser or saline, tape or retention bandage, non-sterile gloves, alcohol hand rub, clinical waste bags, barrier cream and adhesive remover, plus incontinence pads or pull-ups and disposable underpads if relevant. If your relative has a stoma or a chronic wound, keep their routine supplies stocked at normal levels as well.

Where can I buy home care supplies in Singapore?

EMIS+ (emis.asia) is a Singapore nurse-led medical supply store carrying wound care, stoma care, incontinence and home medical equipment, with island-wide delivery and bulk pricing for families managing extended home care, as well as for clinics and care facilities. If you are unsure what to order, send us the discharge supply list and our team will match it.

The short version

MIC@Home moves the bed, not the responsibility. The hospital remains in charge of treatment, and the published evaluation supports its safety for the patients selected for it. Your job as a family is narrower than it feels on discharge day: keep the everyday supply kit stocked, keep one clean surface for dressing changes, know the escalation number, and tell the team early if the household cannot cover the visits.

Need help stocking a home care kit? Browse wound care supplies, ostomy and stoma products and adult incontinence supplies at emis.asia, or contact our nurse-led team with your discharge list.

This article is general information for caregivers in Singapore, not medical advice. Follow the instructions given by your own hospital care team, and use the escalation number they provide.