Home Care , Lab Tests, X-rays, Doctors AT HOME
24 hours a day
Home hospitalization
When a patient is treated at home by hoMed, he/she is considered to be a regular hospital patient.
This in practical terms means that whenever he /she needs to use any section of the hospital this is done without any special or long procedures, just like for any inpatient.
In the case of clinical examinations where the medical equipment necessary is not portable (computer tomography, ultrasound, nuclear medicine), the patient is transferred to the hospital with an ambulance only for the examination and then returns home immediately after the examination is complete.
When the ambulance arrives at the hospital, the nursing staff takes the patient to the appropriate hospital section, which has been already notified to perform the examination. As soon as this is completed, the nursing staff transfers the patient immediately back home.
It
is not necessary for the patient to be escorted by his/her relatives.
The nursing staff will be next to him/her during the whole process. It
will not be necessary for the patient to go through the accounts department
or any administrative section for any formalities. He/she is regarded
as a hospital inpatient. In a short time period he will be back
home in his own bed.
Often the doctors of hoMed will combine the patient’s transfer to the hospital for some necessary examination with a clinical assessment of the patient by a specialist if needed (i.e. a neurologist) or with some other hospital procedure (gastrostomy), whenever this is considered necessary.
So the patient is treated at home without missing out on any of the services available by the most modern hospital in Greece.
When surgical treatment is necessary, all the pre-operative preparation
is done at home as well as the diagnostic tests. The patient is transferred
from home to the hospital and straight to the operating theatre. After
staying in hospital for one day at the most, he returns home to continue
his/her inpatient treatment.
Nursing visit during home hospitalization
In every scheduled nursing visit the following steps are completed:
- Taking and recording of the patient’s temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2).
- Measuring and recording the patient’s intake of intravenous and oral fluids, during the time period lapsed since the last visit.
- Measuring and recording of the urine output.
- Estimation of the fluid balance also taking in account quiet fluid losses and informing the doctors by phone.
- Checking the patient’s bodily functions (bowel motions) and any clinical signs which may suggest ischemia, thrombosis, inflammation, intestinal obstruction, accumulation of bronchial secretions or fluid overload. They inform the doctors accordingly.
- Performing deep aspiration of bronchial secretions, whenever this is necessary.
- Checking that catheters or drains are functioning normally.
- Checking for early signs of pressure sores/ulcers and examining the oral cavity.
- Replenishing intravenous fluids and programming the automatic IV pump via which all fluids and medications are administered as a rule for safety reasons.
- Replenishing of the mobile storage cupboard, which is left at the patient’s home during the whole time of treatment.
- Replacing of the oxygen bottle if needed.
- Completing of the patient’s medical charts, which remain at the patient’s home.
- Collecting of blood samples if needed and placing of the collected samples in a special isothermal container filled with ice packs.
After completing the visit, the nursing staff call hoMed and provide the clinical data collected so that it can be recorded in
the patient’s computer file.
Medical visit during home hospitalization
Doctors arrive at the patient’s home accompanied by one or two nurses,
on a mobile medical unit.
During the doctor’s visit he/she does the following.
- Examine the patient.
- Check the recorded vital signs.
- Check the correct application of all medical treatment orders.
- Perform any therapeutic procedures (if needed).
- Communicate with the other doctors of hoMed or doctors of other specialties of the hospital (if needed).
One of the duties of the hoMed doctor in each medical visit is to teach the nursing staff, to demonstrate any interesting clinical signs and to explain any thoughts, on which diagnostic assumptions are based and the importance of any clinical findings. In this way the clinical experience of the nursing staff is continuously enriched. This in the long run increases the team’s efficiency and the patient’s safety.
Sometimes the hoMed doctors will visit some patients on their own, driving one of the medical fully equipped vehicles.
When a doctor visits a patient alone he /she may:
- Perform a complete medical visit and then leave.
- Need nursing help in which case he/she may call the nursing team closest to the location.
- Call one of the nursing teams, give instructions (i.e. initiating treatment at home) and he/she may then leave (if the patient’s condition allows it) and go to another patient.