108 - Hospital at Home: Moving Acute Care Into the Patient's Home with Maria Normand Larsen
The Sustainable Healthcare PodcastShow Notes
What happens when you move acute hospital care into the patient's own home? Maria Normand Larsen shares the results of Denmark's first hospital-at-home randomised trial.
About the guest: Maria Normand Larsen is a medical doctor and researcher at Herlev Hospital who recently completed her PhD on remote care. Her randomised trial, run at Nordsjaellands Hospital, tested whether acutely ill patients treated at home do better than those admitted to a conventional ward.
Three takeaways: Patients treated at home were measurably more physically active than those in hospital, which matters because the drop in activity during admission drives functional decline and slower recovery. - They were also more satisfied with their treatment, so the better-for-recovery option was also the one patients preferred. - Hospital at home is a complex intervention, not just a change of location. It only works when hospital teams, municipalities, patients and relatives are aligned, and a model proven in one department cannot simply be lifted onto the shelf elsewhere. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro and why remote care 02:00 - What is a care model, and the trial's goal 05:00 - The findings: more active, more satisfied 09:00 - Why it's a complex intervention 12:00 - Which patients it suits 17:00 - A first step for teams who want to try it
References: Hybrid Hospital at Home and Physical Activity RCT (JAMA Network Open): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2850565 - Informal caregivers in a hybrid hospital-at-home model (BMC Health Services Research): https://research.regionh.dk/en/publications/caring-beyond-hospital-walls-informal-caregivers-experiences-in-a/ - Nordsjaellands Hospital: https://www.nordsjaellandshospital.dk - Maria Normand Larsen on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/maria-normand-larsen You might also enjoy: Telemedicine: Reaching Drawdown with a Decentralised Healthcare System (Ep 016) - The Transition From the Sick Care System to a Preventive Care System (Ep 008) Hosts: Joachim Almdal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joachim-espeland-almdal-017a6973/ Frederik van Deurs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederikvandeurs/ Care Pathway Consulting: https://carepathwayconsulting.com
"It's not just a shift of location. It's more complex than that. Just because we showed we could do it at one hospital doesn't mean everyone else can take it off the shelf and implement it."
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