Profiling the medical admissions of the homeless

to describe the characteristics and outcomes of homeless people admitted to our Internal Medicine service in St. James's Hospital, Dublin (Ireland), between 2002 and 2011.

we interrogated an anonymized in-patient database.

there were 1,460 homeless admissions (623 unique patients; 39% admitted more than once). Most patients were young, male, and had low comorbidity levels. Thirty-seven percent of the admissions were alcohol-related and 27% substance abuse-related. Thirteen percent had an active psychiatric illness. Their in-patient mortality rate was 5%. Seventy-two percent were discharged without the residential arrangement being explicitly documented, 15% self-discharged or absconded, and 8% were discharged to a residential facility.

results are novel in our context and will be relevant for local policy and practice.