title: [Continuing care unit and day hospital as an alternative to conventional hospitalization: 10 years' experience in a district hospital].
abstract: The continuing care unit and day hospital allows ambulatory care of patients with digestive diseases.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Reducing hospital admissions and the number of patients with digestive diseases that attend the emergency department.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two types of care are provided: a) continuing care; patients are urgently visited when they show acute decompensation of their digestive disease, and b) scheduled care: procedures that, due to their complexity, require nursing care but not necessarily hospital admission.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the period 1995-2005, visits to the continuing care unit increased from 118 in 1995 to 784 in 2005. In scheduled care, the number of paracentesis increased from 237 in 1995 to 687 in 2006. Intravenous iron infusions increased from 111 in 2004 to 519 in 2006. The number of hospital admissions initially decreased from 605 in 1995 to 430 in 2000, and then increased. The number of patients with digestive diseases attending the emergency department decreased by 75% throughout the period studied.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The continuing care unit and day hospital allowed an initial reduction in the number of conventional hospitalizations and in the percentage of patients with digestive diseases attending the emergency department.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Aparato Digestivo, Corporación Sanitaria Parc Taulí, Institut Universitari Parc Taulí, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, España. mvergara@cspt.es
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vergara Gómez
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gil Prades
authors.forename: Blai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dalmau Obrador
authors.forename: Mireia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miquel Planas
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sánchez Delgado
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Calvet Calvo
authors.forename: Enric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brullet Benedi
authors.forename: Félix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Junquera Flórez
authors.forename: Valentí
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Puig Diví
authors.forename: Meritxell
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casas Rodrigo
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: García Iglesias
authors.forename: Angelina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dosal Galgueram
authors.forename: Raquel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: García Moreno
authors.forename: Neus
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mateo Soto
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodríguez Morillo
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Campo Fernández
mesh_terms: D003631:Day Care, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D013997:Time Factors