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The pressure on the emergency room is reduced and frail patients do not have to go to the hospital and are at risk of becoming infected with covid-19. These are some of the effects when the Sahlgrenska University Hospital mobile team with healthcare personnel visit patients at home.
One of the mobile teams for New Year’s weekend is made up of Sofia Billgren, Section Chief and Nurse Practitioner, and Christer Axelsson, Ambulance Nurse. They stand with the trunk lid open and prepare to enter the first patient of the day: hand alcohol, new mouth guards and visors.
READ MORE: Here, 94-year-old Stina makes a visit to the hospital in her own kitchen.
“It is not necessary to rush to the hospital with coronary disease”
Göran Samuelsson’s dachshund barks from above as the team rings the bell.
Sofia Billgren writes in the diary while her colleague Christer Axelsson measures blood pressure and listens to the lungs. Göran Samuelsson can sit quietly in his chair while they take samples and inject medicine into his arm.
– This is much better for me, I don’t have to rush to the hospital with coronary risks. The last time I had fluid in my lungs, I was hospitalized for five days. Now I don’t occupy a place in the hospital that someone else might need, he says.
READ MORE: Increased pressure on corona IVA: just over 100 more patients since early December
Almost all team patients can stay home
On a daily basis, doctors and nurses work on mobile teams. During the New Years weekend, Sahlgrenska is trying to expand the investment together with the ambulance service to meet the great need. They make planned and urgent visits, and the demand has increased dramatically since the crown broke out. Between March and May 2019, the mobile teams made 192 home visits. During the same period this year, the corresponding figure was 793.
– 97 percent of our callers can stay home instead of going to the emergency room when we arrive. Yesterday we made ten home visits. There are ten people who may be fragile and because of this they do not have to go to the hospital now during the pandemic, he says.
His colleague Christer Axelsson completes:
– On average, you stay eight days in a row. And it costs around 8,000 crowns per day.
READ MORE: More seniors receive home care during the corona crisis
Follow up visits with a medical check-up
Sergio Cisternas, 81, is standing in the hallway in front of his apartment waiting for the team to arrive. You have problems with swollen legs and will be examined further.
– We believe that he should receive more diuretic medication. I’ll call the doctor and listen to what he says, explains Sofia Billgren.
The doctor prescribes medications over the phone and then all equipment must be repackaged.
– Are you coming back tomorrow? Sergio Cisternas asks.
– Yes, tomorrow morning! And then there will be a follow-up with a doctor on Monday or Tuesday.
READ MORE: Several corona vaccines en route to Sweden: this separates them
Safer and smoother to stay at home
Outside the car, the medical team repeats the procedure of washing the visor and gear, discarding the mouth guards and putting on new ones.
Today they have visited elderly patients, but this is not always the case.
– They could easily be younger cancer patients or someone younger who is fragile. The requirement is that you cannot go to a health center or hospital yourself, says Sofia Billgren.
According to her, receiving care at home has more benefits than reducing the risk of infection.
– As a patient, you get more control and more personal care than if you had been in the hospital. And many feel more secure. Doctors generally say that patients never have such good blood pressure inside the hospital, says Sofia Billgren.
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