28 Jul 2011
By Joan Chew
Cover Story CASE #3: LEG INFECTION
A clerical officer was hospitalised for two months after a traffic accident in November 2007 left him with multiple injuries that required more than 20 operations.
Soon after the 42-year-old was discharged, an infection in his right leg, which set in after surgery, required him to be hospitalised again. He dreaded the prospect of another prolonged stay in hospital.
But this time, he left the hospital in under a week as he opted for a home-care service introduced by National University Hospital (NUH) in 2007.
A nurse visited his home daily for eight days to administer his antibiotics via a drip.
He was grateful because he said he was “sick and tired” of staying in hospital.
The service allows patients with stubborn infections, such as that of the bone or urinary tract, to get antibiotics at home instead of in the hospital.
A nurse visits daily to administer the antibiotics via injections or drips. The patient returns to the hospital once a week for a review.
Alternatively, patients or their caregivers are trained to administer the intravenous antibiotics via a pump. The nurse then visits once a week to assess the patient’s condition and collect blood samples.
The service costs about $50 to $100 a day for subsidised patients, and about $150 a day for private patients.
It saves patients up to $160 for a day’s stay, said an NUH spokesman.
So far, 31 patients have used it, saving a total of 419 days in the hospital, she added.
Since 2003, some patients with infections but no other serious medical problems at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) can also receive antibiotic treatment at home.
Their family members have to be trained to administer intravenous antibiotics and will be assessed over two to three days, said DrKang Mei Ling, a consultant at SGH’s department of infectious diseases.
Alternatively, patients learn to attach a disposable infusion pump containing antibiotics to a catheter inserted earlier into a vein. Patients usually use three to seven pumps a week at home and return to the clinic once a week to get new pumps.
Dr Kang said: “An average patient with a joint or bone infection can often be discharged after a week, yet he or she will require four to eight weeks of antibiotics.”
The service allows them to go home after a week, saving them the cost of up to seven weeks’ stay at the hospital, she said.
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