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Early Discharge - Evaluating a Virtual Hospital at Home Model

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Infections
Epidemic Disease
Registration Number
NCT05920304
Lead Sponsor
Nordsjaellands Hospital
Brief Summary

This controlled clinical trial will be part of a larger, 'virtual hospital-at-home' (vHaH) project called Influenz-er. vHaH is a care model designed to deliver medical care at home, as a substitute for a continued conventional inpatient hospital admission.

The overall aim of Influenz-er is to develop, implement and evaluate a novel Hospital at Home model, that will enable safe and satisfactory admission of hospitalised patients including epidemic patients in their homes.

Detailed Description

Various versions of hospital-at-home models have been implemented as an emergency solution to a steep increase in number of hospitalisations during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Conventionally, epidemic patients who require medical monitoring, will be admitted to the hospital. Recently, patients hospitalised for COVID-19 requiring medical supervision for an extended period - sometimes for weeks - have been admitted to their own home supported by telemedicine and/or mobile hospital-based care team (MHCT). Various models of home-based admissions of pandemic patients have been implemented internationally with great results regarding safety and effectiveness. These models are mostly based on physical attendance of physicians in the patient's home and in most situations implemented out of need. Home-based models provide promising results regarding costs, but results are based on low-quality evidence. Health systems facing capacity constraints and rising costs needs to allocate resources based on high-quality evidence.

Therefore, further research regarding feasibility, safety, satisfaction, costs, and effectiveness of a vHaH model still needs to be done.

Danish hospital capacity will not allow for HaH models primarily depending on physical attendance of physicians in the patient's home, nor will it be possible to manually monitor all patient reported data. Therefore, there is a need for a telemedicine supported vHaH model with a smart algorithm alarming clinical staff and thereby aiding in timely handling of patient data and clinical state.

Project Influenz-er proposes an option of transfer to telemedicine supported vHaH model as an alternative to continued standard hospital admission for the future. Patient safety is a top priority regarding both the utilised technology and the re-organisation of standard clinical responsibilities and tasks. Therefore, project Influenz-er included several steps prior to the effectiveness evaluation in this clinical trial.

In the present study, knowledge from previous studies under project Influenz-er is applied, and the vHaH is now ready to be evaluated in an effectiveness trial.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
111
Inclusion Criteria
  • Age 18 years or older

  • Patients admitted to

    1. the Department of Pulmonary and Infectious Diseases (DPID) under any diagnosis or
    2. to the Department of Multimorbidity under any diagnosis
  • Residential address within the catchment area of North Zealand University Hospital

  • Treatment regimen which can be handled within the vHaH model

Exclusion Criteria
  • Unstable clinical condition defined by a current early warning score (EWS) > 6 or single score = 3.

  • Permanent physical or cognitive impairment or observed non-compliance that might negatively affect the ability to perform any of the required actions during the intervention such as self-measurements, data transfer by the app, and/or communication via telephone or video consultation.

    a. This may include, but is not limited to conditions such as dementia, post-stroke sequelae, deafness, extreme tremor of the upper limbs.

  • Unproficiency in Danish language skills

  • Pregnancy

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Patient mental wellbeing (qualitative)14 days post discharge

Evaluation through semi-structured interviews

Physical activity levelWill be measured during admission (home-based vs. hospital), an average of 5 days after study enrollment

Daily step count and time in different activity levels will be measured using an accelerometer placed on the thigh of the participant.

Patient satisfaction (quantitative)14 days post discharge

Evaluation through questionnaires

Patient perceived safety (quantitative)14 days post discharge

Evaluation through questionnaires

Patient mental wellbeing (quantitative)14 days post discharge

Evaluation through questionnaires

Patient satisfaction (qualitative)14 days post discharge

Evaluation through semi-structured interviews

Patient perceived safety (qualitative)14 days post discharge

Evaluation through semi-structured interviews

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Number of outpatient visitsthree months post discharge

Economic endpoint

Percentage of scheduled video consultation which were delivereddaily registration during home-based admission, an average of 5 days after study enrollment

Data will be extracted from patient-monitoring platform "mit e-hospital" and patient record data

Number of in-hospital daysthree months post discharge

Economic endpoint

Number of contacts in primary care (general practitioner, physiotherapy etc.)three months post discharge

Economic endpoint

Demographic characterisation of patients eligible for vHaH14 days post discharge

Evaluation through questionnaires

Mortality post-discharge (7 days, 30 days, and 90 days)7, 30 and 90 days post discharge

Evaluation through patient record data

Productivity losses (resources lost when participants work at suboptimal levels or are absent from work)three months post discharge

Economic endpoint

Rate of adverse events of special interest (AESI)Immediately after discharge

Evaluation through patient record data

Readmittance rate post discharge (30 days and 90 days)30 and 90 days post discharge

Evaluation through patient record data

Mortality during admissiondaily registration during hospital admission or home-based admission, an average of 5 days after study enrollment

Evaluation through patient record data

Percentage of timely service delivery in response to red alarms as a sign of clinical deterioration (health workers demonstrate adequate ability in telemedicine service delivery).daily registration during home-based admission, an average of 5 days after study enrollment

Data will be extracted from patient-monitoring platform "mit e-hospital" and patient record data

Number of health care provider dashboard deficienciesdaily registration during home-based admission, an average of 5 days after study enrollment

Data will be extracted from patient record data

Costs related to initiation of home-based admissionthree months post discharge

Economic endpoint

Number of patient app deficiencies for participants enrolled in intervention armdaily registration during home-based admission, an average of 5 days after study enrollment

Data will be extracted from patient record data

Costs of hospital resource usethree months post discharge

Economic endpoint

Costs of primary care resource usethree months post discharge

Economic endpoint

Total costs of health care utilisation per patientthree months post discharge

Economic endpoint

Health-related Quality of Lifethree months post discharge

Economic endpoint, evaluated using questionnaire EQ-5D-5L (EuroQol, 5 dimensions, 5 levels questionnaire).

On a scale 1 to 5, a score of 1 indicates the best health state, and higher scores indicate more severe or frequent problems. In addition, there is a visual analogue scale (VAS) to indicate the general health status with 100 indicating the best health status.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Department of Pulmonary and Infectious Diseases, Nordsjællands Hospital

🇩🇰

Hillerød, Denmark

Department of Pulmonary and Infectious Diseases, Nordsjællands Hospital
🇩🇰Hillerød, Denmark

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