A PILOT scheme has shown elderly patients treated at home rather than hospital had better survival rates.
Patients in North Lanarkshire received care at home for minor heart attacks and conditions including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia.
The results of the pilot showed mortality rate was 5.5% for patients treated at home, compared to 9.7% of those who were admitted to hospital.
Research shows elderly patients can often recover better in their own environment.
Almost 80% of the 200 patients in the pilot were able to be treated successfully at home with 23% admitted to hospital.
Other NHS boards are now trialling models similar to the, 'Hospital at Home' initiative.
Dr Jim Davie, consultant in medicine for older people, NHS Lanarkshire, said: "Most people do not want to be admitted to hospital.
"Older people are often happier at home and often recover better in their own environment.
"When a patient is referred to ASSET, we aim to visit them within one hour to see if they can be cared for at home.
"We also have an agreement with North Lanarkshire Social Work Department to enable patients to receive immediate additional home care if needed."
caroline.wilson@ eveningtimes.co.uk
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article