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Home ward bound: features of hospital in the home use by major Australian hospitals, 2011–2017
- Source :
- The Medical Journal of Australia
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- AMPCo, 2020.
-
Abstract
- OBJECTIVE To describe uptake of hospital in the home (HIH) by major Australian hospitals and the characteristics of patients and their HIH admissions; to assess change in HIH admission numbers relative to total hospital activity. DESIGN Descriptive, retrospective study of HIH activity, analysing previously collected census data for all multi-day hospital inpatient admissions to included hospitals during the period 1 January 2011 - 31 December 2017. SETTING, PARTICIPANTS Nineteen principal referrer hospital members of the Health Roundtable in Australia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES HIH admissions by diagnosis-related group (DRG); patient and admission characteristics. RESULTS 80 167 of 2 185 421 admissions to the 19 hospitals included HIH care, or 3.7% (95% CI, 3.6-3.7%) of all admissions. Median length of stay for admissions including HIH (7.3 days; IQR, 3.1-14 days) was longer than that for those that did not (2.7 days; IQR, 1.6-5.1 days). For HIH admissions, the proportion of men was higher (54.4% v 45.9%), the proportion of patients who died in hospital was lower (0.3% v 1.4%), and re-admission within 28 days was less frequent (2.3% v 3.6%). The 50 DRGs with greatest HIH activity encompassed 65 811 HIH admissions (82.1%), or 8.4% (95% CI, 8.4-8.5%) of all admissions in these DRGs. HIH admission numbers grew more rapidly than non-HIH admissions, but the difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS HIH care is most frequently provided to patients requiring hospital treatment related to infections, venous thromboembolism, or post-surgical care. Its use could be expanded in clinical areas where it is currently used, and extended to others where it is not. HIH activity is growing. It should be systematically monitored and reported to allow better overview of its use and outcomes.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Adolescent
Home Care Services, Hospital-Based
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Humans
Medicine
030212 general & internal medicine
Child
Aged
Retrospective Studies
Aged, 80 and over
Hospital in the home
business.industry
Australia
Infant, Newborn
Outcome measures
Infant
Retrospective cohort study
General Medicine
Hospital based
Middle Aged
Editorial
Hospital treatment
Child, Preschool
Emergency medicine
Female
business
Venous thromboembolism
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 13265377 and 0025729X
- Volume :
- 213
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Medical Journal of Australia
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....7bb076c6fa546047d5defd077114f8e5