Resumen

REYES SIGARRETA, Migdalia Rafaela; GARRIDO GARCIA, Rolando José  y  CARDENAS, María Teresa. Impacto social del ingreso domiciliario en adultos en un área de salud. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2003, vol.19, n.5. ISSN 0864-2125.

A qualitative descriptive study was performed, which used a representative sample of the home care services for adult patients in the year 2000 in a health care area of Cerro municipality. The objective of the paper was to determine the social impact of such home care services and underline the advantages of this procedure. To collect information, we used the technique of guided interview based on a questionnaire and observation. Despite the shortage of resources and some cases of non-compliance with the guidelines of this procedure, it was observed that home care had a good impact on health status since over 70% of those who were interviewed stated the high quality of the service rendered and it was also confirmed that this kind of service allows taking care of patient within his/her own environment, thus avoiding economic burden for the family and reducing in-hospital service costs. It was recommended to take into account the results to prepare an intervention-action plan aimed at improving the quality of this service.

Palabras clave : HOME CARE SERVICES [standars]; COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE; PRIMARY HEALTH CARE; PHYSICIANS, FAMILY; NURSING CARE; QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE; OUT PATIENTS; IMPACTS ON HEALTH.