Premise: specific equipment is required to ensure the correct approach to the care of the home terminal patient. In 2002 the Vidas Association introduced a new outsourced service which supplies equipment to our domiciliary patients.
Aim: To analyse the type and delivery of equipment required for terminal patients living in an urban and rural setting in order to handle future requests for equipment in an efficient and effective way.
Method: The period studied was April 1st 2002 to September 30th 2003. The Vidas protocol for delivery of equipment was placing an order with the outsourcer over the Internet and delivery to the patient’s home within 48 hours of the order.When the patient went into hospital or died, an order was placed to collect the equipment. After sanitization, the equipment was stored ready for re-allocation. Equipment analysed: orthopaedic bed and/or practical chair.
Results: We assisted 2,063 patients between April 1st 2002 and September 30th 2003. Average duration of home care was 38 days (median 30). 28.6% (589) of the patients used either the bed or practical chair or both, as reported in the table. A=age range B=No. patients C=women D=men E=bed or practical chair F=bed+practical chair G=total practical chair H=total beds A B C D E F G H<45 12 7 5 8 4 7 9 46-65 146 72 74 80 66 107 105 66-75 200 86 114 118 82 134 148 76-85 176 79 97 117 59 103 132> 86 55 31 24 42 13 30 38 Of the 431 deliveries, 67.9% (293) were made within 24 hours of the order, 9.5% (41) within 48 hours, 8.4% (36) within 72 hours and 14.2% after the third day.
Conclusions: current data only point to some aspects of the efficiency of delivery of equipment to the patient’s home. Further analysis of the data will help us to better fulfil the needs of Vidas patients by improving this service.