Early Discharge Programme on Hospital-at-Home Evaluation for Patients with Immediate Postoperative Course after Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery.

BACKGROUND: To audit the safety of the early hospital discharge care model offered by a Hospital-at-home (HAH) unit during early postoperative follow-up of these patients, and to determine whether this care model is more efficient compared to the traditional care model. METHODS: A prospective study of 50 patients included consecutively for 1 year in an early discharge programme after laparoscopic colorectal surgery was performed. As of day 3 after surgery, if the patient met the relevant inclusion criteria they were transferred to the HAH unit. The domiciliary protocol consists of daily clinical follow-up and a series of analytical controls with the purpose of early detection of postoperative complications. If the clinical course was favourable on day 7 after the postoperative period the patient was discharged. RESULTS: A total of 66% were males, and the mean age was 60.6 years. The surgical procedure most commonly performed was sigmoidectomy. The mean stay was 5.5 days. There were no deaths during follow-up. The average estimated cost per day of stay in a HAH system was EUR 174.29 whilst the same average cost on a surgery ward stood at EUR 1,032.42. CONCLUSIONS: For patients undergoing major colorectal surgery with minimally invasive surgical technique, an early hospital discharge care programme by means of referral to a HAH unit is a safe and efficient care model which entails a significant cost saving for the public healthcare system.

[Patients with multimorbidity in the hospital setting]. / El paciente pluripatológico en el ámbito hospitalario.

OBJECTIVES: Hospitals attend patients with multiple chronic diseases. The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of these patients, as well as their main sociodemographic and management characteristics. METHODS: We performed a descriptive study based on information from the minimum data set and a functional definition of patients with multimorbidity. Age, sex, admitting specialty, cause of admission, discharge and days of hospital stay were estimated for patients discharged from a university hospital in 2003. RESULTS: Patients with multimorbidity represented 16.9% (95% CI: 15.8-18.1%) of admissions. These patients were mainly elderly men who tended to be admitted urgently to medical specialties. Discharge to home was less frequent and days of hospital stay tended to be longer. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with multiple comorbidities have well-defined characteristics that allow them to be retrospectively identified through analysis of the minimum data set. Although nearly all services discharged these patients, most of them were discharged from medical specialties.

An estimate of the cost of administering intravenous biological agents in Spanish day hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the unit costs of administering intravenous (IV) biological agents in day hospitals (DHs) in the Spanish National Health System. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data were obtained from 188 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, collected from nine DHs, receiving one of the following IV therapies: infliximab (n=48), rituximab (n=38), abatacept (n=41), or tocilizumab (n=61). The fieldwork was carried out between March 2013 and March 2014. The following three groups of costs were considered: 1) structural costs, 2) material costs, and 3) staff costs. Staff costs were considered a fixed cost and were estimated according to the DH theoretical level of activity, which includes, as well as personal care of each patient, the DH general activities (complete imputation method, CIM). In addition, an alternative calculation was performed, in which the staff costs were considered a variable cost imputed according to the time spent on direct care (partial imputation method, PIM). All costs were expressed in euros for the reference year 2014. RESULTS: The average total cost was €146.12 per infusion (standard deviation [SD] ±87.11; CIM) and €29.70 per infusion (SD ±11.42; PIM). The structure-related costs per infusion varied between €2.23 and €62.35 per patient and DH; the cost of consumables oscillated between €3.48 and €20.34 per patient and DH. In terms of the care process, the average difference between the shortest and the longest time taken by different hospitals to administer an IV biological therapy was 113 minutes. CONCLUSION: The average total cost of infusion was less than that normally used in models of economic evaluation coming from secondary sources. This cost is even less when the staff costs are imputed according to the PIM. A high degree of variability was observed between different DHs in the cost of the consumables, in the structure-related costs, and in those of the care process.

[Hospital at home for acutely ill older]. / Hospitalización a domicilio del anciano con enfermedad aguda.

The aging of population uses to evolve suffering from chronic diseases, many times in pluripathological shaped, which may engender frailty, disability and, as a last term, dependence. The aggravation of those and/or the appearance of others acute processes become the old people into a regular patient of our hospitals. The hospital at home (HaH) has showed that it may play an important role in the provision of range hospital cares to these patients, unimpaired of efficacy and security; but with indubitable benefits within the scope of their comfort (physical, psychical) and in the field of their functional condition. Available technical means at the present day and the staff's professionalism from these units make easier that any serious illness, medical or surgical, will be subsidiary in this type of attention sometime during their hospital care process. The HaH permits a more efficient rationalization of sanitary resources and should play an important role in the longed for interconnection between primary attention and specialized one.

El paciente pluripatológico en el ámbito hospitalario / Patients with multimorbidity in the hospital setting

Objetivos: Los hospitales atienden a pacientes pluripatológicos que sufren de forma simultánea varias enfermedades crónicas. En este estudio se estima la prevalencia, así como las principales características demográficas y de gestión asociadas. Métodos: Estudio descriptivo a partir del conjunto mínimo básico de datos (CMBD) y de una definición funcional de paciente pluripatológico. Se recogen los datos sobre el sexo, la edad, el servicio de ingreso, el motivo de ingreso, el alta y los días de estancia en los pacientes de un hospital universitario durante el año 2003. Resultados: El 16,9% (intervalo de confianza del 95%, 15,8-18,1) de los ingresos fueron pacientes pluripatológicos. Éstos eran de mayor edad, varones, ingresaron más frecuentemente de forma urgente y en el área de especialidades médicas, fueron derivados en menos ocasiones a su domicilio y generaron mayor estancia. Conclusiones: Los pacientes pluripatológicos presentan características diferenciales que permiten su identificación retrospectiva mediante el análisis del CMBD. Aunque casi todos los servicios dieron de alta a estos pacientes, la mayoría fueron atendidos en servicios de especialidades médicas (AU)

Objectives: Hospitals attend patients with multiple chronic diseases. The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of these patients, as well as their main sociodemographic and management characteristics. Methods: We performed a descriptive study based on information from the minimum data set and a functional definition of patients with multimorbidity. Age, sex, admitting specialty, cause of admission, discharge and days of hospital stay were estimated for patients discharged from a university hospital in 2003. Results: Patients with multimorbidity represented 16.9% (95% CI: 15.8-18.1%) of admissions. These patients were mainly elderly men who tended to be admitted urgently to medical specialties. Discharge to home was less frequent and days of hospital stay tended to be longer. Conclusions: Patients with multiple comorbidities have well-defined characteristics that allow them to be retrospectively identified through analysis of the minimum data set. Although nearly all services discharged these patients, most of them were discharged from medical specialties (AU)

Hospitalización a domicilio del anciano con enfermedad aguda / Hospital at home for acutely ill older

El envejecimiento de la población suele llevar aparejado el sufrimiento de enfermedades crónicas, muchas veces en forma de pluripatología, que pueden generar fragilidad, discapacidad y, en último término, dependencia. La agravación de aquéllas y/o la intercurrencia de otros procesos agudos hacen que el anciano sea un asiduo cliente de nuestros hospitales. La hospitalización a domicilio (HaD) ha demostrado que puede jugar un papel importante en el suministro de cuidados de rango hospitalario a estos pacientes, sin menoscabo de la eficacia y de la seguridad, pero con indudables ventajas en el ámbito de su confort (físico, psíquico) y en el terreno de su situación funcional. Los medios técnicos disponibles en la actualidad y la profesionalidad del personal de estas unidades facilitan que cualquier enfermedad grave, médica o quirúrgica, sea subsidiaria de este tipo de atención en algún momento de su proceso asistencial hospitalario. La HaD permite una racionalización más eficiente de los recursos sanitarios y debería jugar un importante papel en la ansiada interconexión entre la atención primaria y la atención especializada (AU)

The aging of population uses to evolve suffering from chronic diseases, many times in pluripathological shaped, which may engender frailty, disability and, as a last term, dependence. The aggravation of those and/or the appearance of others acute processes become the old people into a regular patient of our hospitals. The hospital at home (HaH) has showed that it may play an important role in the provision of range hospital cares to these patients, unimpaired of efficacy and security; but with indubitable benefits within the scope of their comfort (physical, psychical) and in the field of their functional condition. Available technical means at the present day and the staff's professionalism from these units make easier that any serious illness, medical or surgical, will be subsidiary in this type of attention sometime during their hospital care process. The HaH permits a more efficient rationalization of sanitary resources and should play an important role in the longed for interconnection between primary attention and specialized one (AU)

Staphylococcus aureus resistente a la meticilina y hospitalización a domicilio / Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and hospital at home

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