TY - JOUR
T1 - Home management of hematological patients requiring hospital admission
AU - Isaia, Gianluca
AU - Tibaldi, Vittoria
AU - Astengo, Marco
AU - Ladetto, Marco
AU - Marinello, Renata
AU - Bo, Mario
AU - Michelis, Giuliana
AU - Ruatta, Fiorella
AU - Ricauda, Nicoletta Aimonino
PY - 2010/11
Y1 - 2010/11
N2 - The hospital-at-home service (HHS) could be considered as an alternative to the traditional ward for elderly patients. We aimed at evaluating the home management of elderly people requiring transfusions. The ever-increasing demand on acute hospital services requires alternative methods of delivering all aspects of health care. HHS demonstrated to be as efficacious as a traditional ward for elderly and functionally compromised patients. The method was a retrospective descriptive study enrolling patients needing an hospital admission from 1st January 2007 to 31st December 2007 and reporting an hematological discharge's diagnosis as primary or secondary diagnosis. A total of 54 patients were evaluated in this study. Of them, 34 (62.9%) needed a hemocomponent transfusion for a total volume of 112 blood units and 49 platelet pools. Patients requiring at least one blood or platelet transfusion were more functionally compromised and presented a higher level of acute physiology and chronic health evaluation, compared to the non-transfused ones. The conclusion was that hematological subjects mainly the frail ones and functionally highly compromised with acute illnesses could be treated at home as an alternative of the traditional medical ward. This could be the starting point for future studies that will be able to increase the power of hospital-at-home service for this type of patients.
AB - The hospital-at-home service (HHS) could be considered as an alternative to the traditional ward for elderly patients. We aimed at evaluating the home management of elderly people requiring transfusions. The ever-increasing demand on acute hospital services requires alternative methods of delivering all aspects of health care. HHS demonstrated to be as efficacious as a traditional ward for elderly and functionally compromised patients. The method was a retrospective descriptive study enrolling patients needing an hospital admission from 1st January 2007 to 31st December 2007 and reporting an hematological discharge's diagnosis as primary or secondary diagnosis. A total of 54 patients were evaluated in this study. Of them, 34 (62.9%) needed a hemocomponent transfusion for a total volume of 112 blood units and 49 platelet pools. Patients requiring at least one blood or platelet transfusion were more functionally compromised and presented a higher level of acute physiology and chronic health evaluation, compared to the non-transfused ones. The conclusion was that hematological subjects mainly the frail ones and functionally highly compromised with acute illnesses could be treated at home as an alternative of the traditional medical ward. This could be the starting point for future studies that will be able to increase the power of hospital-at-home service for this type of patients.
KW - Hospital-at-home
KW - Hospital-at-home Service
KW - Transfusion of elderly hematological patients
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77957348906&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77957348906&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.archger.2010.01.006
DO - 10.1016/j.archger.2010.01.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 20138376
AN - SCOPUS:77957348906
VL - 51
SP - 309
EP - 311
JO - Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics
JF - Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics
SN - 0167-4943
IS - 3
ER -