In-Home Health Care

In-Home health care is “medical service, that operates in the home of the patient, with or without participation from relatives and with professional support from the local hospital or other caregiver”.

Home health care is divided into two areas, advanced home health care and basic home health care, with the following characteristics:

Advanced home health care:

• is directed by a physician
• is team-based
• provides the possibility of care 24 hours a day
• is based on care that often makes use of advanced medical technology

Basic home health care:

• is directed by a nurse
• is carried out by caregivers who work alone
• encompasses day care
• makes use of little or no medical technology

Hospital based home care is one organizational form of advanced home health care where the only option would be to care for the patient in a hospital. The main reasons for treating and caring for patients in the home are:

• Their own wish to be treated and cared for in their own home.
• The technical possibilities of offering highly skilled health care outside the hospital have increased.
• Experience shows that sick people feel better and recover faster in their own home environment.