Home hospitalization made it possible to treat almost nine thousand patients at home in 2022

Almost nine thousand patients received hospital care at home in 2022, totaling 87,747 days of hospitalization, today reveal data from the Ministry of Health, which point to an increase of 68.3% in direct admissions of users for home hospitalization compared to 2021.

According to the data, the Home Hospitalization programs of the National Health Service (SNS) covered 8,932 patients last year, 20.4% more compared to 2021, totaling 87,747 days of home hospitalization, 24.9% more, with the average length of stay of patients of 9.9 days.

Speaking to the Lusa agency, the Secretary of State for Health, Ricardo Mestre, said that 339 beds were used at home in 2022, 29 more than in 2021, which corresponds to “a medium-sized hospital”.

“It’s as if we had built another hospital in the SNS”, he said, explaining that the 339 beds are spread over 36 hospitals and hospital centers in the country.

The official pointed out that 95% of the hospitals in the SNS already offer this answer and that it will soon be extended to all hospitals. In this regard, he announced that they are defining a strategy so that, by 2026, there may be around 1,000 beds available at home and be able to respond to around 30,000 patients in terms of hospital response at home.

“It is an investment in which the SNS is committed and the teams, professionals and various heads of the National Health Service mobilized to meet these objectives”, he underlined.

In order to respond to the needs of these patients, home hospitalization teams carried out 113,492 home visits in 2022, 19% more than in 2021, with an average time spent at the patient’s home of 37 minutes per visit, according to data from the Program National Implementation of Home Hospitalization Units.

The number of nursing visits also increased by 97.2%, totaling 318,000 visits, as well as non-face-to-face contacts, which grew by 62%, totaling 50,712.

Ricardo Mestre explained that this response is aimed at patients who are still in the acute phase of the disease and who meet a set of clinical, social and geographic criteria that allow them to be hospitalized in their own home, with teams made up of doctors, nurses, nutritionists , social workers who travel to the home, offering all the hospital care that the person would have if they had been admitted to the hospital.

Daily contacts are also made to the user’s home, by health professionals, and the patient is monitored through a telemedicine service, which combines voice, image and transmission of clinical data in real time.

The Secretary of State for Health highlighted that there are “a set of very objective gains for patients who, in the comfort of their home, have access to hospital care that they would have in hospital facilities” and “have a perspective of recovering their state of health in a much more comfortable way, much more suited to your living environment”.

“But it also has advantages for the National Health Service in that it allows us to expand the response, to be more efficient in the response we give to the population, and also allows us to have more humanized care and more in line with what are the expectations of the our population”, he emphasized.

Today, the Ministry of Health promotes the 3rd Meeting of Home Hospitalization Units in Coimbra, where, according to Ricardo Mestre, professionals will have the opportunity to continue discussing the extension of this response, including to other clinical areas such as, for example, pediatrics, oncology, rare diseases, rehabilitation.