Influences of COVID-19 pandemic on hospital-at-home functions in Finland – a questionnaire survey

OBJECTIVE: To investigate functions of Finnish hospital-at-home (HAH) during the first year of COVID19-pandemic 2020 compared with the previous year 2019. DESIGN: Retrospective questionnaire survey. SETTING: Finnish HAHs from Northern, Eastern, Southern, Western and Central parts of Finland participated in a questionnaire web-based questionnaire survey. The numbers of patients, activities and staff in 2019 and 2020, participation in the care of COVID19 patients, availability of protective clothing, attitudes of patients towards home care and development of new practices in the corona era were asked using both predefined and free questions. SUBJECTS: questionnaire was sent to the nurses and physicians in charge of the HAHs (N = 13), 77% responded. The HAHs provided services to a total of 1,196,783 inhabitants in their municipalities. RESULTS: There were no significant changes in the numbers of patients, staff or activities between the years 2019 and 2020. Although nurses did viral tests, COVID19 patients were cared only in 40% of HAHs. Protective clothing was well available. New instructions for infection management were created. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic did not largely influence the functions of the examined Finnish HAHs in 2020. Most activities and patients’ characteristics remained unchanged from 2019. The role of HAHs should be further developed in Scandinavian countries, particularly during pandemics. KEY POINTS: Hospital-at-home (HAH) is a cost-effective model to provide hospital-like services. Data about the role of HAHs during COVID19 pandemics is lacking in the Nordic countries. This study shows that, the large Finnish municipal HAHs have been not influenced by pandemics.