Home care

Abstract

Home care has always been an important part of health care. Traditionally, care was focused on the home or community. Hospitals were usually seen as places for the poor to go when they were too sick to care for themselves; they were essentially death houses. The hospital changed about 1900 with developments in medical technology, particularly with hospital hygiene, asepsis, and surgical anesthesia. With the development of vaccines and antibiotics, and the corresponding control of infectious diseases, the hospital role shifted toward care of people with chronic degenerative and neoplastic diseases (cancer). Now, more than 95 percent of people admitted to the hospital can expect to be discharged alive (81).