Soon we will be 20 years old

• 30 September of 2019
• Eva A. Sánchez Martos
• 1 comment

Many of you will remember what happened XNUMX years ago in our Hospital.

You will remember that the building of the current Sabadell Gent Gran used to be the city's pediatric hospital. He was locked up and taken to the second floor of the Taulí building where the urology and vascular surgery units used to be. This left us all more anxious.

Among the changes was the separation of emergency and emergency services with seven hundred daily visits.

There was talk of creating a new hospital in Mollet.

The culture of chronic patients to follow the day hospital circuits was developing.

And we had a growing population.

In this context, the Home Hospitalization in Sabadell was born, exported from the Basque Country or Madrid, where it had been operating for 25 years. As a stone witness, the walls of the La Salut building. As a goal of the Management, to improve health care in the face of lack of beds. In everyone's mind, sick people.

But we will let it be one of the protagonists who talks about the first steps of this care system in our Hospital. The Operations Director, Margarida Forrellat.

- How was the proposal to create a Home Hospitalization unit?

- At the time I was asked to create Home Hospitalization by the Hospital Management, I was not aware of what they were asking for, and suddenly I found a blank piece of paper in front of me that I didn't know where to start.

I am looking for information and I find experiences made in New York in 1947, in 51 in Paris, and from the 80's when it begins to expand in Spain (Madrid, Elche, Vigo, Santander) and is around 91 what starts in Catalonia. I saw what was a good challenge ahead.

- What are the objectives to find out if they could be a good alternative ?:

• There was an increase in the demand for health services
• An aging population
• Hospital congestion
• Increased healthcare costs

All this makes it necessary to optimize resources, reduce care pressure in the Hospital, avoid visits to the Emergency Department…

- Tell us how it all went:

- Given this information, I asked to go to see Hospitals from outside Catalonia, where they were operating so that they could learn and see if it was applicable in our environment.

I went to Santander and also to Valencia. I was impressed with how they were doing it and the possibilities the HaD had.

From here it was when we did:

In 1998 a 2 month pilot test.Another December 1998 to April 1999.After the results, we finally started on January 20, 2000 to the present.

- How were the inclusion criteria developed to determine which patients could enter and which could not?

- Let's start with Non-severe pluripathologies and decompensations;Chronic pathologies in improvement or resolution;COPD exacerbations; Stabilized heart failure.

We gradually expand other pathologies: Infections, Vascular pathology, Post-surgical care for Gynecology, ORL and Vascular Surgery.

All will need a therapeutic and healing plan with a beginning and an end.

- What qualities did you look for in professionals?

- First of all, they are professionals with hospital experience, since at home many times you have to decide and act without much help and you need to be an expert and self-employed, developing the professional role. You also need to do a lot of health education and have a profile to do that.

And second, eager to meet a new challenge like the HaD.

- It was very difficult for you to find materials such as elastomers on the market to adapt them to your home

- Find them no, but get them a little. I had to prove what was effective and what saved nursing hours as they were financially expensive as well as great comfort for the patient.

Reports and more reports

 The proof is that we started at the HaD and now it is used by the entire Hospital.

- When you were asked to create the Home Hospitalization Unit, in 1998, did you think that you were facing a new care system and that it would be so well valued by patients and professionals?

As I mentioned, at first I was not aware of where we could go, it was looking for information and they saw other experiences that you realize that there is GREAT potential within the HaD. Finally, when you start it, you see what a system is that reduces patient insecurity, what is a good alternative to conventional hospitalization and what improves the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes.

Satisfaction surveys were conducted for the sick and the professionals, the result is good

The sick:

It turned out very positive, among others only 13% preferred conventional hospitalization. It enhances your comfort and values ​​the most direct and individualized assistance being in your usual environment.

The professionals:

73% of the professionals indirectly involved in the program are very satisfactory, because they also increase the comfort and, above all, the impact that they can have on health education for both the patient and his family, also actively involving him in the care within the its environment.

- As a HaD user who was you and your family, what would you highlight about your experience?

- The peace of mind of coming home with the right treatment, being able to sleep in your bed, rest without noise, eat when and what you are used to knowing what you have behind you great professionals that you can contact them whenever you need. In my case what was the foot I did not have to move for care or treatment. 

- Now, as a retired person, who expects the professionals you taught to take care of you, would you have any preference for making an entry into HaD and why?

- Whenever the pathology allows, I would ask for HaD with my eyes closed. For all the advantages I have already mentioned, adding, already as a professional, avoiding nosocomial infections from the hospital itself.

- Finally, what is the best memory you have of your experience as Chief Operating Officer of the HaD unit?

- There are many, but what fills and satisfies me the most is what was once a blank paper and a challenge and is now a reality. A Unit that works very well with GREAT PROFESSIONALS, some who started with me and others who have been incorporated since but with the same hope that the Unit works and that it grows and gives different assistance as Well, we have seen that it has many possibilities and it is an improvement also for the patient, bringing the Hospital closer to the patient and not the other way around.