A Public Health Home Nursing Program for Outpatients with Heart Diseases

Abstract

DURING the past 10 to 15 years, programs have been developed in hospitals and health departments across the country. The primary objective of most programs has been to provide medical and nursing to patients in their own homes a,fter hospitalization. Indeed, this type of program has become so common that the term home care today virtually implies that there has been preceding hospitalization. In the past 2 or 3 years, several programs have be-en started which are aimed at patients who are ambulatory and who may never have been hospitalized. The primary objective of these programs is to keep patients out of the hospital as long as possible by providing anticipatory medical and nursing services at home. In January 1964 an anticipatory program was begun at St. Luke's Hospital Center in New York City for a group of elderly patients with chronic congestive heart failure who received their medical in the outpatient clinics of the hospital. The aim of this program was to determine if the hospital admission rate of these patients could be reduced by adding public healt,h nursing followup at to the regular routine of outpatient department c,are. 'The results of this program provide information about the medical of congestive heart failure, organization of community health services, and role of public health nurses in programs of this kind.