Hospital at home team

Hospital at home aims to:

• Avoid admission where this is likely to result in more harm to patient
• Reduce number of ‘days in wrong place’ for patients
• Better continuity for patients
• More job satisfaction for clinicians

We see:

• Acute deterioration such as frailty crisis (falls, delirium, reduced mobility)

• Patients at risk of hospital admission in next 48 hours

• Patients we can safely manage at home with support from FAST response

• Patients at home, in care homes or on ambulatory care (and sometimes on clinical decision unit)

We are unable to see:

• Medical emergencies such as poisoning, heart attack, stroke, gastrointestinal bleed, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) – unless palliation appears to be the most sensible option

• Conditions which have been present for a long time (for example dizziness for 20 years and already seen a specialist such as ear, nose and throat (ENT) or neurology)

• Purely social breakdown

Recurrent admissions

• We may see people who have had recurrent admissions where emergency health care plan discussions are needed and medication review may be helpful.
• These patients are likely to be capacity dependent as our focus will be on patients who are experiencing acute deterioration.