Role of public hospitals regarding the support of patients at home
Terano, T.; Hirai, A.; Imai, C.; Sakuraba, K.; Yamamoto, T.; Ogura, K.; Irie, Y.
Gan to Kagaku Ryoho. Cancer and ChemoTherapy 29(Suppl 3): 551-553
2002
ISSN/ISBN: 0385-0684 PMID: 12536848 Document Number: 542086
Eight sickbeds for the support of patients at home were established in Chiba Municipal Hospital in response to a request from the Chiba City Medical Association in 1997. These sickbeds were run by physicians and nurses in the hospital and nurses from Chiba City Public Health Center to promote a tight relation among the medical care, the health care and the public welfare systems. The role of the public health nurses is to receive and manage the documents of the patients from regional medical practitioners and to communicate with the related organizations. These sickbeds were set up to offer medical care, educational teaching to the family, and the social environment to support the patients at home. The patients, who were consulted by regional medical practitioners, were pre-registered by them. The length of stay at the hospital was limited to 2 weeks. The number of patients who were registered and hospitalized increased every year: thus 374 patients receiving treatment from 44 medical practitioners have already been registered. The average age of the patients was 81.1 and almost all of the patients were sick in bed for the whole day at home. Sixty-three patients were hospitalized making use of those sickbeds this year. Further promotion of the relation among the organizations involved in medical care, health care, and welfare is very important to support the patients to be able to stay at home.