Sygehus Sønderjylland (Hospital of Southern Jutland) receives approx. 9,500 citizens aged 65 or older that need acute hospitalisation (excluding cardiologic and neurological admissions). This number corresponds to 60 per cent of all medical admissions at the hospital. Admissions are evenly distributed throughout the year, but 80 per cent take place during the GP's (the general practitioner's) opening hours. This means that an estimated 13 patients aged 65 or over are hospitalised each day during the GP's opening hours on weekdays or approx. 3,250 patients per year.

If 25 per cent of these admissions can be changed to outpatient treatment by the GPs, the number of admissions in the age group 65 or older can be reduced by 8 per cent.

Vision

In collaboration with the research project ACCESS, Patient@home tests how monitoring technologies across sectors and offers can reduce acute (re)admissions, health costs, loss of function - and at the same time strengthen the coherence of the patient pathway. Increased focus on preventable hospitalisations is another important issue. Patient@home will especially be involved in examining how monitoring of heart beat, blood pressure and oxygen saturation can minimise the number of emergency admissions.

The project includes 300 "test patients ", which randomly will receive one of the four offers listed below. Half of these will receive a treatment including the use of monitoring technology.

The Four Deals

• The municipal emergency service with frequent contact to the citizen and implementation of treatment at home or in emergency rooms established at care centers, where the patient's own doctor has the treatment responsiblity.
• The municipal emergency service + emergency assessment of the patient by medical specialist in out-patient clinic within 30 minutes of arrival. The patient is then treated at home or in an emergency room, where the medical specialist has the treatment responsibility.
• The municipal emergency service + welfare technological solutions with direct contact to medical specialist, video communications, home monitoring of blood pressure, pulse and oxygen saturation.
• The municipal emergency service + emergency medical specialist assessment including implementation of the three abovementioned actions.

A qualitative and quantitative evaluation will be carried out at the end of the project. It is expected that the tested technologies will contribute to a decrease in the hospitalisation rate of at least 20 per cent and a faster functional recovery.

The project was completed in spring 2015.

Evaluation: http://accessprojektet.dk/