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1) Patients receive chemotherapy in the outpatient setting. During the treatment course it is important for the patients to be well hydrated to ensure excretion of the chemotherapy.
2) The home hydration backpack allows patients to continue their treatment in the comfort of their own home. It includes fluid bags, a pump, instructions and extra supplies.
3) At home the patient is receiving hydration to aid excretion of the chemotherapy. At some point, the fluid bag may need to be changed—this can be done by most parents. The patient will then return to the outpatient clinic the next day to proceed with the treatment regimen.
Standard procedure for patients undergoing some types of chemotherapy is admission to the hospital for hydration, a process in which fluids and a special medication flush harmful agents from the body. It’s a simple procedure but can take as many as 48 weeks of hospitalization for patients during the course of their treatments.
To minimize unnecessary hospitalizations, nurses from Children’s Hospital Boston and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute developed the Home Hydration Program, in which eligible patients receive hydration at home. The program has improved the patient care experience for families, increased inpatient bed availability and reduced preventable hospital stays.
Since it began in 2007, the program has saved patients a total of 1,135 days in the hospital and saved payers about $2,000,000. “Despite the predicted loss to hospital revenue, Children’s supported the creation of this program to improve patients’ quality of life,” says Patti A. Branowicki, MS, RN, NEA-BC, vice president of Children’s Medicine
Patient Services.
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