Point-of-care ultrasound in a Hospital-at-Home Unit: use and limitations

In the last few years, the use of point-of-care ultrasound has become widespread on the Internal Medicine Units. However, the literature on its use in Hospital-at-Home (HaH) is insufficient. The objective of the research is to quantify and evaluate the use of point-of-care ultrasound in HaH.

A descriptive observational study of point-of-care ultrasound performed in a HaH Unit between July and December 2022.

85 ultrasounds were performed on 72 patients. The type of ultrasound most frequently performed was multi-organ 71.8% and the most common reason for performing it was the monitoring of patients admitted for heart failure 68%. Hospital displacement was avoided in 72.8% of the situations.

Point-of-care ultrasound is a useful tool in the HaH Unit considering it allows optimizing patient follow-up, improving clinical decision-making, and even avoiding the displacement of patients to the hospital.