1. The outcomes of treatment for homebound adults with complex medical conditions in a hospital-at-home unit in the southern district of Israel
- Author
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Boris Punchik, Ilona Kolushev-Ivshin, Ella Kagan, Ella Lerner, Natalia Velikiy, Suzann Marciano, Tamar Freud, Rachel Golan, Ella Cohn-Schwartz, and Yan Press
- Subjects
Hospital-at-home ,Homebound patients ,Readmission ,Elder patients ,Geriatric assessment ,Medicine (General) ,R5-920 ,Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 - Abstract
Abstract Background A model of hospital-at-home services called the Home Care Unit (“the unit”) has been implemented in the southern region of the Clalit Healthcare Services in Israel. The aim of the present study was to characterize this service model. Methods A retrospective cross-over study. included homebound patients 65 years of age and above who were treated for at least one month in the framework of the unit, between 2013 and 2020. We compared the hospitalization rate, the number of hospital days, the number of emergency room visits, and the cost of hospitalization for the six-month period prior to admission to the unit, the period of treatment in the unit, and the six-month period following discharge from the unit. Results The study included 623 patients with a mean age of 83.7 ± 9.2 years with a mean Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE) score of 12.0 ± 10.2, a mean Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) of 3.7 ± 2.2 and a Barthel Index score of 23.9 ± 25.1. The main indications for admission to the unit were various geriatric syndromes (56.7%), acute functional decline (21.2%), and heart failure (12%). 22.8% died during the treatment period and 63.4% were discharged to ongoing treatment by their family doctor after their condition stabilized. Compared to the six months prior to admission to the unit there was a significant decrease (per patient per month) in the treatment period in the number of days of hospitalization (2.84 ± 4.35 vs. 1.7 ± 3.8 days, p
- Published
- 2024
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