An observational pilot study to evaluate the feasibility and quality of oncological home-hospitalization

PURPOSE: The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility of oncological home-hospitalization and to compare its quality with standard ambulatory hospital care in terms of patient-reported quality of life and related endpoints by means of a set of validated patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). METHODS: An observational cohort study (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT03073499) was conducted, allocating patients to (partial) home-hospitalization or standard ambulatory hospital care. PROMs were completed by both cohorts at start of treatment and eight weeks later. An additional study-specific questionnaire was presented to the intervention cohort at study-end assessing their satisfaction with and preferences for the provided homecare. RESULTS: Thirty patients received home-hospitalization, corresponding to 116 interventions. For twenty-eight patients, this comprised all assessments required prior to administration of treatment, which resulted in a significant reduction of waiting time for treatment administration at the hospital in comparison with the control cohort (n = 24) (average reduction of 1:12 h, p