NUTRITIONAL SUPPORT IN THE HOME-BASED HOSPITALIZATION SETTING

The Hospital at Home (HAD) is a choice of care that enables own care in a hospital at home patient. Moreover, the nutritional support (NS)-enteral or parenteral nutrition-is usually indicated in patients with serious underlying disease, and/or frequently remain severely disabled. Aims: To analyze the characteristics of the patients, attended at home for specific questions of the NS that receive. Material and methods: descriptive and retrospective study of the patients attended by the Nutritional Support Unit (NSU), in the area of the HAD, from September 1, 2006 until August 31,2007. Results: At home, the realized procedure was: refill of gastrostomia or jejunostomia feeding tube in 158 cases; modification of the guideline of enteral nutrition (EN) or parenteral nutrition (PN) in 53 cases; training of the skill of artificial nutrition in 14 cases. 39 visits were realized by complications-by infection or lead throught the estoma and by obstruction of the feeding tube-. Only in 3 patients (7.7%) the domiciliary assistance indicated the movement of the patient to the Emergency Unit. Conclusion: In our center, the infrastructure of the HAD has allowed to give answer to the needs of the patients who receive NS at home in our area of influence.