[Hospital-at-home in older patients: a scoping review on opportunities of developing comprehensive geriatric assessment based services]

Abstract

This scoping review focused on the opportunity of developing new hospital-at-home schemes in our health systems adapted to older patients with complex conditions due to acute illness. A review was conducted on articles including, randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews and meta-analysis in PubMed and Cochrane Library, from January 1990 to July 2013. Search terms were: hospital-at-home, Early Supported Discharge, hospital in the home and home hospitalization. An analysis was performed to include: the intervention model (admission avoidance or early discharge), age, diagnosis, main inclusion criteria and intervention characteristics (disciplines involved, duration of intervention, main outcomes and objectives). It is concluded that there are several models of hospital-at-home care, with favorable clinical outcomes. The majority of teams in our country focused on acute health care in the less elderly with chronic diseases. Other schemes based on comprehensive geriatric assessment and interdisciplinary teams specialized in complex interventions are also highlighted. The development of comprehensive geriatric assessment based hospital-at-home care by teams led by geriatricians is an opportunity to develop alternatives to conventional hospitalization interventions tailored to older patients.

Keywords: Admission avoidance; Alta precoz; Atención integrada; Complex interventions; Early discharge; Evitación del ingreso; Hospital-at-home; Hospitalización domiciliaria; Integrated care; Intervenciones complejas.