Hospital at home: the use of a new series

Hospital at Home (HH) schemes can provide an alternative to acute hospital admission. However they create extra work for GPs, and might be used as an additional rather than alternative source of care. The introduction of a Hospital at Home scheme in Leicester enabled these issues to be examined. Case mix, service inputs, discharge destination and re-admission rates were monitored during the first 15 months of its operation. Also, hospital avoidance, GP workload and the scheme’s acceptability were estimated. Routinely collected data about patients admitted during that period was used. In a sub-sample of patients, the general practitioner was asked to complete a postal questionnaire about admission avoidance and work load.