Background Nursing home residents often face unnecessary risks when visiting the emergency department (ED). Due to the limited rapid response capabilities of primary care and lack of equipment for acute illnesses, onsite specialized outreach units present a novel alternative. The Mobile Hospital is a nurse-led outreach unit providing onsite acute care to nursing home residents with remote physician support. The unit operates in the suburban area of Espoo, Finland. This study aimed to evaluate the Mobile Hospital from the perspective of healthcare staff. Methods We interviewed nursing home nurses, emergency medical services (EMS) nurses, emergency physicians, and Mobile Hospital nurses, totaling 21 interviews. We employed inductive thematic analysis to analyze the interviews. Results The Mobile Hospital was seen as a holistic way to deliver basic hospital-grade treatment to nursing homes, thus avoiding the risks involved in ED visits. However, it also introduced new dependencies on clinical expertise, teleconsultation support, and system coordination, underlining both its potential and its operational challenges. Successful adoption requires careful implementation and ongoing education of stakeholders regarding acute care protocols. Complementing the qualitative findings, the staff Net Promoter Score (NPS) for the Mobile Hospital was 81 (17 promoters, four passives, no detractors). Conclusion The Mobile Hospital can be described as an interprofessional missing link in the acute care of nursing home residents, which the healthcare staff perceived as a promising model for avoiding unnecessary ED visits when implemented with adequate expertise and system support. Clinical trial number Not applicable.
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Kontunen et al. (2026) studied this question.
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