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about-us

FROM HOSPITAL TO HOME

The hospital discharge process can be difficult for patients and their families, as well as complex and labour-intensive for hospital staff. Abbott’s pioneering Hospital to Home nutrition service is aimed at easing the burden for both. This free service which was launched 18 years ago, offers comprehensive, customised education and support for vulnerable tube-fed hospital patients transitioning back to their homes. Abbott’s Hospital to Home service has three principal goals:

  • To support patients, often elderly and vulnerable, in re-adapting to life in their communities, whether they are going home or to a residential care facility
  • To remove the administrative burden from hospitals’ busy frontline staff
  • To streamline the hospital discharge process by providing customised information and support for each individual
  • Hospital to Home personalises each patient’s discharge network according to the location, assembling all the critical information needed to ensure that the person being discharged has the correct supplies of equipment and nutritional products. Abbott provides nutrition pumps and starter packs free of charge, so that individuals can be fed for seven days while they await funding approval for ongoing care. Response to the programme has been overwhelmingly positive on the part of hospitals and patients alike. In 2014 Hospital to Home provided more than 572 hours of pump training and education sessions. The programme also has relieved hospital staff of some 396 hours annually of administrative work. Hospital to Home includes 24 hour pump replacement and servicing, both domestically and to international travellers, as well as a free phone helpline and an out-of hours emergency service.