Continuing care unit and day hospital as an alternative to conventional hospitalization: 10 years' experience in a district hospital

The continuing care unit and day hospital allows ambulatory care of patients with digestive diseases. AIM: Reducing hospital admissions and the number of patients with digestive diseases that attend the emergency department. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two types of care are provided: a) continuing care; patients are urgently visited when they show acute decompensation of their digestive disease, and b) scheduled care: procedures that, due to their complexity, require nursing care but not necessarily hospital admission. RESULTS: In the period 1995-2005, visits to the continuing care unit increased from 118 in 1995 to 784 in 2005. In scheduled care, the number of paracentesis increased from 237 in 1995 to 687 in 2006. Intravenous iron infusions increased from 111 in 2004 to 519 in 2006. The number of hospital admissions initially decreased from 605 in 1995 to 430 in 2000, and then increased. The number of patients with digestive diseases attending the emergency department decreased by 75% throughout the period studied. CONCLUSIONS: The continuing care unit and day hospital allowed an initial reduction in the number of conventional hospitalizations and in the percentage of patients with digestive diseases attending the emergency department.