Powell Dylan, Burrows Fanny, Lewis Geraint, Gilbert Stephen
Faculty of Health Sciences & Sport, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK.
NHS England London, London, UK.
NPJ Digit Med. 2024 Sep 16;7(1):252. doi: 10.1038/s41746-024-01249-8.
Traditional healthcare delivery models face mounting pressure from rising costs, increasing demand, and a growing environmental footprint. Hospital at Home (HaH) has been proposed as a potential solution, offering care at home through in-person, virtual, or hybrid approaches. Despite focus on expanding HaH provision and capacity, research has primarily explored patient care outcomes, patient satisfaction economic costs with a key gap in its environmental impact. By reducing this evidence gap, HaH may be better placed as a positive enabler in delivering healthier planet and population. This article explores the environmental opportunities and challenges associated with HaH compared to traditional hospital care and reinforces the case for further research to comprehensively quantify the environmental impact including any co-benefits. Our aim for this article is to spark conversation, and begin to help prioritise future research and analysis.
传统的医疗服务模式面临着成本上升、需求增加和环境足迹不断扩大带来的越来越大的压力。居家医院(HaH)已被提议作为一种潜在的解决方案,通过面对面、虚拟或混合方式在家中提供护理。尽管人们关注扩大居家医院的服务范围和能力,但研究主要探讨了患者护理结果、患者满意度和经济成本,在其环境影响方面存在关键差距。通过缩小这一证据差距,居家医院在创造更健康的地球和人口方面可能会更好地发挥积极推动作用。本文探讨了与传统医院护理相比,居家医院相关的环境机遇和挑战,并强调了进一步开展研究以全面量化环境影响(包括任何协同效益)的必要性。我们撰写本文的目的是引发讨论,并开始帮助确定未来研究和分析的重点。