Nurse-Led Care at Home Visit Versus Standard Care in Patients with Mild Acute Pancreatitis: A Retrospective Analysis.

Backgrounds: Frequent hospitalization and the costs of hospitalization are the main burdens in China for patients with acute pancreatitis. Most admitted patients have mild disease conditions that do not require hospitalization.

Aims: Here, we compare some health and economic aspects of patients with mild acute pancreatitis who received nurse-led care at home visits against those who were hospitalized on follow-up.

Methods: Patients discharged from the hospital after treatment for mild acute pancreatitis received (NC cohort, n = 104) or did not receive (HN cohort, n = 141) regular home visits by nurses for treatment and care. Patients were rehospitalized by caregivers with or without help of nurse.

Results: Hospital readmission events occurred in both cohorts at a follow-up care time of 2 months. Compared with the time of discharge from the hospital, unwanted effects were higher in follow-up care in all patients (p < 0.001 for all). Patients in the NC cohort had less time to resolution of pain, less time to resumption of oral solid food intake, smaller number of patients with hospital readmissions, less average time of hospitalization, lower cost of care, and lower occurrence of unwanted effects than those of patients in the HN cohort during 2 months of follow-up care (p < 0.05 for all).

Conclusions: Patients with mild acute pancreatitis who undergo treatment require nurse-led nontreatment intervention(s) for rehabilitation in follow-up. Nurse-led follow-up care at-home visits increase recovery, are beneficial and cost-effective, and decrease unwanted adverse effects in patients receiving treatment for mild acute pancreatitis.

Level of evidence: IV.

Technical efficacy: Stage 5.