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Archived 9 May 2003 - some links may not work
Program Overview
What is HITH?
- Hospital in the Home is the provision of hospital care in the comfort
of the persons own home.
- Patients are regarded as hospital inpatients and remain under the
care of their treating doctor in the hospital.
- Patients receive the same treatment that they would have received
had they been in a hospital bed.
- Patients may be able to receive all their hospital care in HITH or
they may have a stay in hospital and then receive HITH in the latter
part of their treatment.
- Participation in HITH is voluntary - patients and their carers must
agree to have their care provided at home.
- There are no additional charges to patients for being in HITH.
- HITH is available to public patients from the 43 participating public
hospitals across the state.
How did it start?
- HITH started in Victoria in 1994 as a pilot program.
- Hospitals were invited to apply to become a HITH provider and 43 hospitals
were selected.
- Funding was initially provided by the Government to help establish
the programs in public hospitals.
- Funding ($5m per annum) continues to be provided to participating
hospitals as an incentive to provide the service in addition to funds
provided through the normal inpatient payment (casemix).
Facts & Figures
- The use of HITH has been growing steadily since the start of the program.
- Victoria has the most developed HITH program in Australia.
- In 2001/02, over 21,300 patients received HITH.
- In the first 3 months of 2002/03, over 5,800 patients received HITH.
- The average length of stay in HITH is just over 6 days, compared with
an average length of stay in hospitals of 3 days.
- The number of bed days in HITH has continued to increase and in the
first 3 months of 2002/03, there were over 37,300 bed days in HITH.
This represents 6.4% of all total hospital bed days and the equivalent
of 409 beds over a full year.
Who can get HITH?
- Any public patient in one of the 43 participating hospitals who is:
- assessed as being clinically suitable
- have appropriate support in the home, ie. a carer
- have a suitable home environment;
- chooses to be treated in HITH
- can be treated in HITH.
- HITH is a safe and effective way of providing treatment for a
range of conditions.
- A wide range of conditions and treatments are provided in HITH.
The most common are intravenous antibiotic treatment of cellulitis,
genito-urinary tract or respiratory tract infection, anticoagulant
therapy and chemotherapy.
How does HITH work?
- Patients may be admitted into HITH in different ways, depending on
their condition and treatment. Some patients may be admitted directly
into HITH (either from the Emergency Department or their own home) or
may first stay in hospital and then be transferred to continue treatment
in HITH (this may be after surgery or after their condition has been
stabilised).
- There are different models of HITH care, but in virtually all situations,
the patient would be seen by a nurse or doctor at least once per day.
If the patient requires allied health services, such as physiotherapy
or speech therapy, this will also be provided. In some situations, patients
may be requested to come into hospital to receive a component of their
treatment.
- A number of the HITH programs provide access to HITH staff at nights
and weekends. Some however will recommend that if there are any problems,
the patient should present back at the hospital.
What do patients think of HITH?
- Several patient satisfaction studies have been carried out since HITH
commenced in Victoria. All the studies have shown that patients are
highly satisfied with HITH and in fact prefer to be treated in the comfort
of their own home rather than hospital. Reasons that have been cited
are having the comfort of their own bed and home, having their family
and friends around them, they sleep better at home, the food, the peace
and quiet, and a number of patients have commented that they feel that
they are getting better treatment because they are getting the undivided
attention of the nurse and are not one of many patients on a busy ward.
- The results from carer satisfaction studies are variable. Carers do
say that it is more stressful in some ways to have the patient at home,
but at the same time it is easier as they are not restricted to visiting
times, they do not have to go to the hospital to visit the patient,
and even though it puts more stress on them, they prefer it.
Benefits of HITH
- Patients - prefer being treated in their own home than in hospital
- Hospitals & Government:
- Better management of hospital beds
- More efficient use of resources
- In many situations HITH can be provided at a cheaper cost than
hospital care (no capital or hotel costs).
- If hospital beds were required for the care provided in HITH,
an additional 409 beds would be required. This is equivalent to
the size of a large metropolitan hospital.
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