On 19 May 2023, a Joint Ministerial Decision from the Ministers of
Health and Economics was published, concerning the establishment of home
health care and hospital at home systems for targeted sensitive groups
of patients with chronic disabilities. It provides for home care
combined with parallel organized support from health care units for
children, adolescents and adults with serious chronic health problems
that cause long-term or permanent disabilities.
The aim
is to improve the quality of life of patients while freeing up hospital
beds and saving resources for the national healthcare system. In
particular, this decision concerns patients, children and adults, with
different underlying primary disease (chronic respiratory obstructive or
restrictive diseases, rapidly or slowly progressive neurological
diseases such as motor neuron disease, myasthenia, cystic fibrosis,
chronic heart failure and other chronic diseases) and oncology patients
who need specialized long-term care and oncology treatment at home.
The patient’s home will be assimilated to the hospital environment, (operating as a place of care), under the terms and conditions provided for the provision of hospital care services at home. The program’s Reference Center is defined as the clinic/hospital department, which provides hospital care at home, to patients who have been treated at the clinic in question or at clinics interconnected with the Reference Center. Patients treated at home can return to the Reference Center or, when this is not possible, to an interconnected structure, at any time, to be treated in case of worsening of their condition.
Hospital at
home and health care services are provided by intersectoral –
interdisciplinary teams, with the capacity to supervise 100–120 patients
per year, which are interconnected with short-day hospitalization
departments as well as nursing beds of the Reference Center. According
to the decision, a department with at least two free beds available 24
hours a day, every day of the year must be designated for each Reference
Center.