[The usefulness of hospital at home in nephrology]

Abstract

Background and objective: The Hospital at Home Unit (HHU) is a medical care model effective in different fields of medical and surgical conditions. The objective of the study was to analyse the utility of moving acute nephrologic patients to a HHCU.

Patients and method: We review the Nephrology Service requests to move patients to the HHU the last 3 years. The results were compared with those obtained from the rest of patients admitted at the HHU during the same period.

Results: The requests number was 85 and 79 (93%) patients were included for the study. Patients had high comorbidity (Charlson index mean, 3.75) and acute medical problems. The length of stay at the HHU was 12.65 days. The total intervention rate was 1.23 interventions/day. In 71 cases (89.9%) the hospital discharge was at the patient's home. In 8 cases the readmission at the hospital was required to solve the medical process. Hospital readmissions after the HHCU discharge before 30 days was 6.3%. No statistical differences were found between nephrology patients and the rest of HHU patients when comparing the intervention rates, the percentage of home discharges and the hospital readmissions.

Conclusions: The moving of nephrologic acute patients to a HHU is a save choice and well accepted by patients and their families.