Medical respite programs help both hospitals and communities by reducing admissions, days spent in the hospital, and readmissions after 90 days.
Credit: Getty / Alexander Spatari
Keith was medically stable. His congestive heart failure and asthma were under control. But the 58-year-old faced a common problem for patients discharged from New York City hospitals: he needed a safe place to go.
Keith was in the process of rebuilding his life at a men’s shelter when his health conditions required care at NYU Langone. In this scenario, the question is, Is it better to keep him in a hospital bed he didn’t need or send him back to a shelter where acclimating to his newly implemented medication regimen and diet would be nearly impossible?
In February 2025, NYU Langone launched a third option: a medical respite program that connects patients to stable housing and social services and frees hospital beds for those who need them. This solution is in partnership with the nonprofit Comunilife, a long-standing housing and social services provider in New York City that aims to equip people with the skills to eventually live independently in their community.
NYU Langone leases beds through Comunilife, which operates around 3,000 units of transitional, supportive, and affordable housing units. NYU Langone’s respite beds are in buildings in upper Manhattan and the Bronx; some are full respite buildings and others share a location with other types of units. Unlike shelters, the facilities provide private rooms or shared rooms with two beds, each with private bathrooms. NYU Langone pays an annual rate for a bed to be reserved at any of Comunilife’s locations and can also lease additional beds, as availability allows, on a per diem basis.
Without NYU Langone’s medical respite program, Keith said he would have returned to living in a men’s shelter, which he said “was horrific for me.” The program gave him space to focus. “Right now, my mindset is just finding somewhere to live and adjust to my illness and make everyone laugh. I want to stay in high spirits, so I try to lift everyone with me,” said Keith.
Social workers across New York City are seeing hospitals used to fill gaps in care. According to NYU Langone’s internal data, the number of patients with housing instability has grown substantially, with total documented responses on the Manhattan campus increasing from approximately 240 patients per month in January 2023 to over 400 patients in September 2025 (a more than 65 percent increase).
Michelle Romano, LCSW, director of the Department of Social Work and Care Management Services for Adults at NYU Langone, came to the health system as a graduate student intern and noticed this pattern.
“We are seeing more and more patients who are medically ready to leave the hospital and who want to get back to their lives in the community, but without a place to stay that is conducive to their recovery,” Romano said. “This includes patients with ostomy bags or wounds that need dressing, patients needing physical therapy or on infusion medications. these are medical services that can be arranged for patients with a stable home or family support to return to, for those without, we needed a better solution.”
“When we discharge people to less-than-ideal healing conditions, they have a much greater chance of coming back to the emergency department in worse shape,” said Arielle Bonne, LCSW, manager of social work at NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital.
Beverly Raudales, MD, Comunilife’s chief program officer, helped pioneer the medical respite model 14 years ago. She identifies three categories of patients trapped in hospital beds: those without suitable housing for their mobility needs, those requiring medical care that shelters won’t accommodate, and those with no housing connections at all.
Once patients arrive at a Communilife housing unit, they are assigned a counselor who works with care coordination and a housing navigator who works on connecting them to long-term housing.
“Something really impactful about our partnership is that the program maintains weekly meetings between NYU Langone’s discharge team and Comunilife staff,” said Dr. Raudales.
NYU Langone appreciates how social determinants of health impact the health outcomes of our patients. The respite program not only offers a viable short-term discharge plan from the hospital for the patient, but it also allows for the opportunity of accessing stable, longer-term housing for patients dealing with chronic medical problems.
Once patients are in a room, caseworkers help them navigate common barriers. Some patients have received Social Security cards for the first time, gaining access to services that had been out of reach for years. Staff also help with things like wound care, counseling, and guidance on the next steps to find permanent housing.
“Patients have the opportunity to go somewhere where you have a dedicated team that pays attention to what you need to move forward with your life. We help them apply directly to apartments that normally they would have to be on waitlists for years to get into,” said Dr. Raudales.
The program delivers measurable results. According to Comunilife, 62 percent of people the organization serves at medical respite are connected to successful housing—whether supportive, permanent, shared, or independent. The average length of stay is 48 days.
Medical respite care is becoming more popular because of its positive impact on hospitals and communities. Such programs reduce hospital admissions, days spent in the hospital, and 90-day readmissions, according to literature reviews, with and improved housing outcomes.
Romano shared a particularly memorable transformation for a man in his forties with disabilities whose sister could no longer provide care. “Within a day of taking him in, his sister realized that it was too much for her to take care of him because he needed a lot of assistance.”
Initially hesitant about the respite program, the patient agreed after meeting with a counselor from the program and understanding its benefits. “Within months, he went to look at apartments to transition out of Comunilife housing. They got him food stamps. He’s getting a power wheelchair, and he is making friends and building a community. Without respite, it is hard to say where he or his sister would be today,” said Romano.
Although the need for medical respite housing shows no signs of slowing down, Dr. Raudales is asking people to examine the economics. “How many beds are occupied unnecessarily by patients who are stable but don’t have housing? Compare that to the cost of a respite bed. Can we afford to continue managing housing instability by keeping people in hospital beds they don’t need while others wait for care that they do need?”
For Keith, the program is an engine for forward momentum: “My only focus right now is to get a place to stay … My mind is focused.”
Media Inquiries
Arielle Sklar
Phone: 646-960-2696
Arielle.Sklar@NYULangone.org
