Home care: profile of patients attended by a home care program

The home care is a modality of health care which is becoming an important alternative to minimize some of mainly relevant problems of world health, especially the public health network. This paper aimed to describe the socio-demographic and clinical population assisted by the Home Care Program HU em Casa, of the University Hospital Clemente de Faria, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros. It is a descriptive and retrospective study analyzing medical records from May 2005 to May 2008. Of the 137 analyzed patients, 75 were females (54.7%) and 62 males (45.3%). Concerning age, the 61-80 year group was the most prevalent (37.2%) and 73% lived and was attended in the peripheral districts of Montes Claros city. Among the most important diseases in the first admission, the most prevalent was pneumonia (22 cases, 16.1%). Most patients were referred to the HU em Casa Home Care Program for the medical clinic (84.7%) with a range of higher prevalence of 2 to 3 admissions (42.4%). Of the total patients, 120 (87.6%) stayed in hospital for 16 to 30 days. Referring to resolutivity, 130 (94.9%) patients were discharged to the program on the first admission. The PID proved to be a high-solving program, attended mainly elderly women with low income and with periods of relatively short hospitalization.