Initiation of the smart home wards as a new model for home-based rehabilitation for the elderly

Abstract

Pressures from the healthcare systems have led to decreased lengths of hospital stay and home-based long-term rehabilitation for the elderly hospitalized patients, while the elderly patients with home-based rehabilitation remain at high risk of hospital re-admission, adverse events and mortality. As the modern technology advances, previous research has proposed the concept of smart hospital and smart home for the elderly's health. However, no evidence of smart homes tailored to home-based rehabilitation for the elderly patients discharged from hospital is available. Moreover, how to link smart hospitals and smart homes to generate a joint environment for elderly patients' accelerated recovery, is a worthwhile endeavor. To address this important gap between smart hospitals and smart homes for the elderly who require home-based recovery after discharge, Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital recently initiated the development of a novel model, named smart home wards (SHWs). The SHWs may have the potential to extend homes as part of the hospital wards by breaking down the information silos between smart hospitals and smart homes, and eventually improve the elderly patients' health outcomes in a cost-effective approach for our aging population.