Hospital at Home
Older people who are not seriously ill can be treated just as effectively in their own homes or residential home as in a hospital bed.
Torfaen’s Hospital Admission Avoidance Scheme allows health and social care professionals to work closely together to provide a hospital at home service to reduce unnecessary hospital admission. A GP now has the option of admitting an older person to hospital or considering whether their medical and nursing care can be provided just as effectively by health professionals visiting their home. When a patient falls ill, a specialist nurse assessor will immediately be called in by the GP to assess their medical needs and, where necessary, to carry out a series of medical investigations, including routine blood screening, urine testing, and heart monitoring.
If, in the judgement of both the GP and the specialist nurse assessor, the patient’s care can be managed at home, arrangements are put into place for this to happen.
Professor Bim Bhowmick OBE MD FRCP, Consultant Physician for Torfaen Intermediate Care, said the belief still existed that older people were best cared for in hospital when ill or recovering from a fall, despite evidence to the contrary.
He said: “Older people do not generally like going into hospital and want to be treated in their own homes. Our ethos with this scheme is to keep older people who do not need hospital admission at home with their dignity intact.
“This is not about cutting hospital admissions but improving the outcomes for older people. People who need admission to hospital because they are very seriously ill or injured will be admitted to hospital.”
The Advanced Clinical Assessment Team was set up with Wanless funding from the Welsh Assembly Government.