[Home hospitalization: an alternative to conventional hospitalization. Future outline]

Domiciliary hospitalization (DH) is defined as the group of treatments and healthcare carried out in the patient's home, but of complexity, intensity and duration comparable to those received by a patient in a conventional hospital.

The aim of this article is to divulge, in the neurological world, the possibility of attendance by DH.

A DH would act as a supporting term for the acute hospital, as a supporting team for Primary Care, and in some cases as a unit for assessment and placing patients in their best 'therapeutic setting' as required by any community health organization. In this paper we consider the professionals who make up the structure of DH, the criteria for admission to the Unit, the system for admission and the types of illness which may be attended in these units. With regard to the latter, we briefly analyse the neurological illnesses in the DH setting: cerebrovascular disease, meningitis and multiple sclerosis. Finally, we present data regarding the 13 units working in the Comunidad Valenciana.

The basic mission of the DH is to improve the quality of assistance, and by means of specialist support enable the biggest possible number of persons who need and wish to remain or return home as soon as possible to do so.