A qualitative study of a Hospital at Home service in South-West London
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding the experiences of a Hospital at Home service for frail older patients and their carers living in South-West London
IRAS ID
320940
Contact name
Chris Flood
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
London South Bank University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
A Hospital at Home service has been set up in Central London Community HealthCare (CLCH) Trust within the boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth. The service is designed to provide an alternative to admission, as well as provide the additional option of an earlier discharge from hospital (where this would not have been possible without Hospital at Home). It means, in practice, patients and carers can get a higher level of support at home, with visits and care provided by doctors, nurses and the wider multi-professional health care team, as well as freeing up hospital beds.
We have already conducted an initial evaluation to establish if the Hospital at Home service is safe and at least as effective as an in-patient stay for older frail patients who live in the boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth. This research application seeks approval to compliment this by investigating how patients and carers feel about their experience of the service via semi-structured qualitative interviews. Interviews will also be conducted with other health service providers to explore the wider impact of Hospitals at Home. Crucial to understanding the value of the service is the views from carers and patients on whether they felt the care they received was effective, safe, acceptable and to try to capture overall benefits of the service as well as potentially any disadvantages of receiving care in this way.
It is anticipated that we will conduct up to 25 interviews with carers and patients and 5 interviews with other service providers.REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/EM/0117
Date of REC Opinion
16 Jun 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion