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1. What does it mean for me?
When a patient
passes into the care of MediHome Nurses, they are transferring to
a "virtual ward" of your hospital rather than being discharged.
You remain clinically responsible for your patient, in control of
their medical care until the point that the patient is finally
discharged.
2. How can I keep track of my patients if they are
not an in-patient?
You are able to
access the very latest patient observations and nurses notes from
your desk (or any web connected PC) without needing to wait until
the next ward round or other opportunity to visit the patient.
Should it be necessary, the nurses can post images of wounds, clinical signs or
12 lead ECGs onto the EPR system
3. Why should I do it?
Patients
generally prefer to be at home rather than in hospital.
Academic research points to improved outcomes for many conditions.
Risks of hospital acquired infection are reduced. Costs can
be reduced and resources freed up in the hospital.
4. Will it mean more work for me?
If anything, it
should allow you to work more efficiently because logging onto the
EPR takes less time than a ward round.
5. How do I use the service?
We are very
pleased to have the opportunity to talk to groups of clinicians
and managers in acute trusts to explain more about how we work.
We can then put together a proposal for your trust based on a
review of the local case mix.
6. Can I be assured of a high quality service?
MediHome Nurses operate within a
robust clinical governance framework and a comprehensive set of
policies and frameworks. For more detail,
click here.
7. What do patients think who have
used this service?
MediHome Nurses receive very
positive scores in our patient satisfaction surveys. This
bears out the academic research that demonstrate the preference
patient for this pattern of care. For more detail
click here.
8. What is the evidence for the
benefits of this service
The MediHome Review archive contains
links to a number of studies that demonstrate benefits in terms of
clinical outcome as well as patient preference.
Click here.
9. If a patient
doesn’t want to go home what should I do?
MediHome's
policy is only to care for patients who have first signed a
consent form.
We recommend
that patients should be prepared for the prospect of returning
home under the care of a MediHome Nurse early in their admission.
Nurses caring for them should be reassuring them about the safety
of receiving care from a MediHome Nurse and how closely the
doctors will be able to monitor their condition. But if the
patient remains reluctant to reluctant to return home, this is
likely to be a symptom of their insecurity about their underlying
condition and some undisclosed problems about their home
circumstances and itself a contraindication for MediHome care.
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