[P3-177] Questionnaire Survey for Developing a Home Medical Care System for Medically Complex Patients with Special Health Care Needs
[Introduction] Advances in medical treatment have saved the lives of many patients, who were previously helpless, and have increased in the number of patients requiring medical care facilities at home, e.g., mechanical ventilation, intratracheal suctioning, and enteral tube feeding. In the Tottori Prefecture, Japan, the home medical care system for medically complex patients is poorly equipped. Therefore developing a home medical care system is imperative. [Method] We conducted a questionnaire survey of 328 practitioners, pediatricians, and neurologists working in hospitals and clinics in the Tottori Prefecture. [Results] The questionnaire response rate was 27.7%. Approximately 26% of those surveyed answered that providing medical care was possible for these patients. Those who answered that providing medical care was impossible gave the following reasons: anxiety in treating patients with medical care at home (62%) and pressure of daily business (40%). The interhospital agreement of the emergency hospitalization of patients with medical care at home was of high importance (89%). There was a high requirement to provide patients’ medical information to home doctors (>50%). Several surveys have provided little information regarding the life of patients with home medical care, necessity for preliminary informed consent from families about home doctors’ participation in patients’ medical care, and backup system outside business hours for home doctors’. [Conclusion] Inter-professional collaboration between doctors working in hospitals and home doctors and a backup system for the admission of patients at home requiring emergency care are necessary for developing a home medical care system for those requiring home medical care.