Efectos de un programa de atención domiciliara en geriatría sobre el número de hospitalizaciones y consultas a urgencias

Objective: Evaluate the effects of the home care program of the Center of Memory and Cognition Intellectus in a group of multimorbid and dependent patients regards to the number of hospitalizations and consults to emergency service, before the program and one year after the follow-up. Design: It´s a longitudinal study of before and after. Participants: Patients of the home care program of the Center of Memory and Cognition Intellectus, who met inclusion criteria: attended at home by geriatrician aged 65 or over, chronic diseases or dementia, cancer or others, Barthel index less than 60, minimum follow up of one year in home care program. Main measurements: Number of hospitalizations and visits to the emergency service, before and after the year of follow up.Results: The average of hospitalizations decrease from 1.91 (SD: 1.82; CI95%: 1.50-2.32) to 0.96 (SD: 1.43; CI CI95%: 0.66 to 1.26) with statistical significance (p = 0.002). The average number of visits to emergency service decreased significantly (p = 0.0003) from 2.20 (SD: 1.91; CI CI95%: 1.77-2.63) to 1.20 (SD: 1.69; CI CI95%: 0.82-1.58). Conclusions: A reduction in the number of visits to the emergency service and hospital admissions was evidenced with statistically significant difference.