Introduction:

Home-care models are safe and effective alternatives to the care of patients. The day care hospitals provide specialized care and targeted treatments with adequate quality standards, that can fulfill the expectations of patients and their families by different measures. However, this model has not been sufficiently explored in Colombia. This study aims to determine the safety and efficacy in terms of mortality, hospital readmissions and adverse events in the follow-up of a multipurpose day care hospital model focused in patients with internal medicine diseases in Medellín.

Design and methods:

A retrospective descriptive study of secondary sources, from the medical records registry of 3419 patients seen in an “Early discharge program” between June 2014 and May 2016 in Medellin city, patients were coming from hospitalization rooms of internal medicine and emergency departments of second and third level of complexity attention, and outpatient services. Univariate analyzes were performed through proportions and rates to determine mortality, hospital readmissions, and adverse events in the statistical package epidat version 4.1.

Results:

The average age was 62.6 ± 18.3 years. 66% were women. The most common diseases were chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (16%), Diabetes mellitus (11.3%), cardiac failure (11%). The rate of readmissions was 2.6% for the same diagnosis as admission to the program, the adverse event rate was 0.66 % and a mortality rate of 0.87 %.

Conclusions:

This retrospective analysis of the day care hospital model, it’s the only one reported so far in Latin American literature, allows us to demonstrate its safety and clinical efficacy in the care of adult patients.

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