Admission avoidance: hospital at home

Pressures on secondary healthcare services have led to increasing interest in interventions that can avert hospital admissions. One particular area of focus is the role of community-based healthcare provision as a method of preventing the need for hospital-based care. If community interventions can avoid admissions, then they not only reduce the demands on hospital services, but also lessen the impact of adverse events associated with inpatient stays, such as hospital-acquired infection or medication errors (Wright et al, 2014).

This is of particular relevance to community nurses, who are often at the centre of the provision of home-based care. In recent years, community nursing has increased in scale, scope and importance, with many services being provided that were historically only available in the hospital setting. However, there is recognition too that in order to meet future healthcare demands, the provision of community services must grow further (Charles et al, 2018). It is therefore important to understand which community interventions are most successful at preventing hospital admissions and in which patient groups.