Hospital to a Healthier Home

This Care & Repair Cymru paper provides an evaluation on the winter pressures pilot last year, linking health and housing for older people.

It describes how the Hospital to a Health Home case worker service started, what type of interventions have been provided to patients and hospital staff, costs, benefits and the difference it has made to patient well-being, patient flow, quicker safe discharges of care, and preventing re-admissions.

In summary, it found:

• Based on an local assessment of bed day savings, the service costs are fully substantiated, and return £2.80 for every £1 invested (both revenue and capital)
• Based on modest assumptions and realistic Public Health Wales projections, the potential preventative cost benefits could be as high as £4.50 for every £1 invested
• The average unit cost of a Hospital to a Healthier Home intervention is low, £338 per patient, whilst the impact value could potentially be as high as £1,125,812 cost avoidance to the health economy, and
• Practical, needs-led and bespoke interventions in the home helped 626 older patients, with 628 completed works, broken down to 910 individual jobs that supported home safety and independent living