About Hospital at Home
Hospital at Home is a short-term, targeted intervention that provides a level of acute hospital care in an individual’s own home, or homely setting that is equivalent to that provided within a hospital.
The Hospital at Home programme supports NHS boards and health and social care partnerships to develop services that enable people to access acute level care in their own home.
Examples of Hospital at Home
The 'Hospital at Home: Guiding principles for service development' includes an evidence review that identified key findings on the benefits of Hospital at Home:
- Hospital at Home can be delivered safely without increased rates of death or readmission to acute care
- Hospital at Home may reduce the likelihood of patients living in residential care following an acute episode
- patients express high levels of satisfaction with the service, and
- costs of Hospital at Home are generally lower than inpatient care.
Components of Hospital at Home
The key components of Hospital at Home services in Scotland are detailed in Hospital at Home: Guiding principles for service development and listed below:
- a hospital specialist acts as senior decision maker and responsible medical officer
- the service treats short, time-limited acute episodes of care
- under the care of a Hospital at Home service, patients have urgent access to hospital-level diagnostics
- the service provides a different level of intervention compared to other community based services, such as access to IV fluids and oxygen, and
- care is delivered by multidisciplinary teams
Resources to implement Hospital at Home
A wide range of resources are available to increase your knowledge of Hospital at Home and support the implementation of the service, including:
- National guiding principles to support service development in Scotland
- Improvement resources: A range of templates and guidance documents for developing a service
- Job descriptions: Written and shared by Hospital at Home services
- Podcasts: Interviews with members and users of Hospital at Home services
- Standard operating procedures: Developed and used by Hospital at Home services
- Outputs from sessions: Recordings and flash reports from sessions, and
- MS Teams community: A group for people working in Hospital at Home services to share learning. Contact us at his.communitycare@nhs.scot if you would like to join our community.
Get in touch
If you would like more information contact us at his.communitycare@nhs.scot.
Please note that Healthcare Improvement Scotland cannot provide information or support for individuals in Hospital at Home care. If you, a relative or someone you care for have questions about your eligibility for Hospital at Home or specific Hospital at Home queries regarding your care, please contact your GP.