Table 12 Characteristics of studies included in detail
Author, year, country | Type of reviews or designs | No. of studies | Study country | Population | Intervention | Outcomes | AMSTAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cool et al. [53], 2018, Belgium | Systematic review Mixed | 5 RCT* 2 nRCT* 7 single-arm prospective trials 2 qualitative studies 1 retrospective cohort study | European countries, mostly France and United Kingdom (UK) Other studies from: Belgium, Israel, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and United States of America (USA) | Adult patients | Parenteral cancer drug administration in hospital at home care | Quality of life, patient’s satisfaction, safety, and costs | Moderate quality review |
Corral Gudino et al. [54], 2017, Spain | Systematic review Qualitative | 21 RCTs, among which 4 RCTs about HBH | Spain | Not specified | Interventions supporting continuity of care, including HBH | Number of readmissions, mortality, or improvement in functional capacity | Moderate quality review |
Goncalves-Bradley et al. [22], 2017, UK | Systematic review and meta-analysis Quantitative | 32 RCTs | A majority of studies are from the UK, Australia, and Norway. Other studies from: Canada, Chile, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, The Netherlands, and Turkey | Patients aged 18 years and over, acute episode of care | Early discharge hospital at home | Effectiveness and cost of the intervention | High quality review |
Huntley et al. [55], 2017, UK | Systematic review Qualitative | 10 RCTs 9 nRCTs Among them 11 studies (6 RCTs and 5 nRCTs) about HBH | European countries, principally UK | Patients aged over 65 years at risk of an unplanned admission | Any community-based intervention offered as an alternative to admission to an acute hospital | Reduction in secondary care use, patient-related outcomes, safety, and costs | Moderate quality review |
Shepperd et al. [24], 2016a, UK | Systematic review and meta-analysis Quantitative | 3 RCTs 1 nRCT | Norway, UK, and USA | People aged 18 years and older, who would otherwise require hospital or hospice inpatient end-of-life care | Home-based end-of-life care | Place of death, unplanned/precipitous admission to or discharge from hospital, control of symptoms, delay in care from point of referral to intervention, participant health outcomes, family- or caregiver-reported symptoms, family or caregiver unable to continue caring, participant’s preferred place of death, health service use, including system and caregiver costs | High quality review |
Shepperd et al. [25], 2016b, UK | Systematic review and meta-analysis Quantitative | 16 RCTs | Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Romania, Spain, UK, and USA | Patients aged 18 years and over (older patients = 65 years and older). Patients to be clinically stable and not requiring specialist diagnostic investigation or emergency interventions | Hospital at home | Mortality, transfer (or readmission) to hospital, functional status, quality of life or self-reported health status, cognitive function, depression, clinical outcomes, place of residence at follow-up (living in a residential setting), patient satisfaction, caregiver outcomes, health professionals’ views, length of stay in hospital and hospital at home, cost, use of other health services and informal care | High quality review |
Echevarria et al. [23], 2016, UK | Systematic review and meta-analysis Quantitative | 7 RCTs | UK, Netherlands, Australia, Italy | Patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease | Early supported discharge (ESD) and hospital at home (HAH) | Structure of ESD/HAH schemes, number of patients experiencing one or more readmissions, mortality and cost, comparing cost across different countries and healthcare structures | Moderate quality review |
Qaddoura et al. [49], 2015, Canada | Systematic review and meta-analysis Quantitative | 3 RCTs 3 nRCTs among which 5 studies (3 RCTs and 2 nRCTs) are about HBH | Spain, Italy, Sweden | Patients who required hospitalization for decompensated heart failure | Substitutive care models | Mortality, hospital readmissions, other clinical, patient-centered, and cost outcomes | High quality review |
Caplan et al. [20], 2012, Australia | Systematic review and meta-analysis Quantitative | 61 RCTs among which 26 RCTs about HBH | Countries are not explicitly mentioned | Patients aged > 16 years | Hospital at home care models regardless of temporal-, team- and disease-specific frameworks | Mortality, readmission rates, patient and carer satisfaction, and costs | Moderate quality review |
Jeppesen et al. [12], 2012, Norway | Systematic review and meta-analysis Quantitative | 8 RCTs | Australia, Denmark, Italy, Spain, UK | Patients with a diagnosis of COPD with an acute exacerbation | Hospital at home care | Readmission rate, mortality, costs and days of care provision | High quality review |
Hansson et al. [50], 2011, Denmark | Systematic review Quantitative | 1 RCT 1 control group 3 studies had no true control group | USA, Canada, and Italy | Children and adolescents aged 0–18 years with a cancer diagnosis | Medical treatments relevant for childhood cancer provided by hospital- or community-based healthcare professionals who take an active part in the care in the patient’s own home as an alternative to a hospital admission | Children’s physical health, adverse events, parental and child satisfaction, QOL of children and their parents, and costs of using hospital data, questionnaires, or satisfaction surveys | Low quality review |
Shepperd et al. [51], 2009, UK | Systematic review and meta-analysis Quantitative | 26 RCTs | Countries are not explicitly mentioned | Patients aged 18 years and over (older patients = 65 years and older). People requiring long-term care needs were not included unless they required admission to hospital for an acute episode of care | Early discharge hospital at home | Mortality, readmissions, general and disease-specific health status, functional status, psychological well-being, clinical complications, patient satisfaction, carer satisfaction, carer burden, staff views, discharge destination from hospital at home, length of stay in hospital and hospital at home, cost | Moderate quality review |
Shepperd et al. [52], 2008, UK | Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Quantitative | 10 RTCs | Australia, Italy, New Zealand and the UK | Patients aged 18 years and older entered the program directly from the community or from the emergency department | Hospital care at home | Mortality, readmissions or transfers to hospital, general and disease-specific health status, functional status, psychological well-being, clinical complications, patient and caregiver satisfaction, caregiver burden, staff perspectives, place of residence at followup, length of stay and cost | Moderate quality review |
Felix et al. [26], 2004, UK | Systematic review and meta-analysisQuantitative | 7 RTCs | Spain, Australia (not explicitly mentioned other countries included) | Adult patients attending an emergency department with an acute exacerbation within 72 h of presenting to the department and after an | Hospital at home schemes | Mortality and readmission | Moderate quality review |
Shepperd et al. [44], 1998, UK | Systematic review Quantitative | 5 RCTs | UK, USA | Patients aged 18 years and over needing treatment during an acute episode of care | Hospital at home care | Mortality, clinical complications, re-admissions, costs, hospital days saved from the provision of hospital at home, discharge destination from hospital at home, functional status, psychological well-being, patient satisfaction, and carer satisfaction | Low quality review |