Healthcare interventions at home are vital for frail older people who frequently have difficulty accessing services. These clinical interventions include primary and secondary care, acute, subacute, and chronic disease management. Randomized controlled trial and meta-analyses have demonstrated improved health outcomes, such as decreased mortality, reduced hospitalization, and cost-effectiveness from many clinical interventions in home care, but not all. Hospital in the Home provides acute and subacute care at home across a wide range of diagnostic groups, whereas most chronic disease management programmes are disease specific. Improvements in and increased portability of technology has assisted many of these developments, but most home care remains proudly ‘high touch’. Ongoing improvements in technology hold the promise of greater benefits, but completely understanding the role of technological innovation in delivering improved outcomes cost effectively is a work in progress.
Prevalence of disease complications and risk factor monitoring amongst diabetes and hypertension patients attending chronic disease management programmes in a South African Township
