Homely healthcare

Anil Kumar Chillimuntha
03 May 2003

Surat: Indian hospitals have a long history but the pace of growth is minimal. Where we lack and where we stand is just an insignificant thought. A thorough study of our hospitals and its management is only a longstanding wish.

If we do not correct ourselves and grow to excel, a day will come when a majority of our hospitals will be considered inefficient. We are bugged with many traditional styles while the world is revolutionising. The priority of this article is to debug by incorporating the latest techniques used in the West, such as the concept 'home healthcare.'

'Home care' is a simple phrase that encompasses a wide range of health and social services. These services are delivered at home to the recovering, disabled, chronically or terminally ill persons in need of medical, nursing, social, or therapeutic treatment and/or assistance with the essential activities of daily living.

The history of home care is very old but it still did not take shape into India. Nursing services have been and probably will continue to be the major component of home healthcare. The history of home healthcare is therefore reflected in the history of home nursing services.

Deeper roots
Home healthcare can be traced to the Boston Dispensary, which in 1796 provided the sick poor the dignity to be cared for at home rather than in the hospital. At that time hospitals were still considered to be pest houses, where the poor went to die. In 1877 the women's Branch of the New York City mission was the first establishment in the United States to hire a graduate nurse to provide nursing care for the sick in their homes.