The first Hospital at Home (H@H) service was established in Scotland in 2011 in NHS Lanarkshire.
Hospital at Home is a short-term, targeted intervention that aims to provide a level of acute hospital care in a person’s own home or normal place of care that is equivalent to that provided within a hospital.
Although this type of care is delivered in the community Hospital at Home differs from other types of community based care services because it is aimed at treating short, time-limited acute care needs but it is not intended to prevent or reduce access to specialist care.
In Scotland there is a national definition for Hospital at Home and the graphic below shows how the model sits within the wider health and social care system.
Rethinking health services operations to improve patient experience of healthcare journey
The key features of Hospital at Home in Scotland include:
- Patient access to a medical consultant who will have complete oversight for their care plan
- It is design to address short-term, time-limited, acute care episodes
- It is not intended to prevent access to specialist acute care where needed.
- Patients are treated as though admitted to hospital
- Hospital at Home has urgent access to hospital-level diagnostics
- Care is delivered by multidisciplinary teams of healthcare professionals fully complying with current acute standards of care.
Hospital at Home provides:
- A joined up approach to care provision –avoiding duplication and gaps
- Ensures Integration of services needed for individual tailoring of intervention/support
- Optimises the use of resources and service availability to meet patient needs
“Hospitals fulfil a crucial role in delivering vital care to patients. But we also know that there can be downsides to hospital care, especially for older people. They are more at risk of medication errors, they can pick up infections and delirium, and they can become institutionalised. Moreover, due to the fact that they are less likely to move around, they can become more prone to falls, with 50% of patients not returning to their previous level of functional ability. Not to mention the emotional and psychological impact of being away from family, friends and familiar surroundings. We also know that most older people would prefer to stay at home rather than to enter hospital.”
Claire Ritchie (October 15, 2020) “How Hospital At Home is changing outcomes for patients” Healthcare Improvement Scotland Blog
“Three studies reported on the impact of HaH on informal carers. One study found that carers of patients in HaH had higher rates of satisfaction compared with those caring for patients admitted to hospital.”
Hospital at Home Supporting Appendices (ihub.scot)
Get in touch
Enquiries for Hospital at Home can be made via the UHA switchboard. Please be aware that clinical advice and referrals cannot be made from members of the public via this number.
Further information
Hospital at Home – Health and social care improvement in Scotland