Page 91 - 2018-19全民健康保險年報
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照跨步精進 展望未來
Recent Progresses and Future Outlook
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of various types of medical personnel and the vertical integration of upstream and downstream hospitals and clinics, and seeks to provide comprehensive patient-centered medical services.
As of the end of June 2018, 2,234 medical organizations had organized 211 teams to provide care to 40,828 persons. The NHIA will continue to encourage the establishment of community care teams, with the goal of having teams distributed evenly throughout the country. By caring for patients with impaired mobility, the teams will help patients resume life in their communities and reduce unnecessary “social hospitalization.”
Hospice Care Focused on Quality of Life
The NHI offers many hospice care services, including “hospital hospice care,” “hospice shared care” and “hospice home care” to deliver holistic care and ease the physical, mental, and emotional suffering of patients facing life threatening illnesses. Medical teams provide integrated hospice care depending on patients’ needs, from hospital admission and discharge to home care.
The hospice home care program delivers services to terminally ill patients at their homes or an institution after they are diagnosed and given a referral for hospice care by their doctors. Featuring regular visits by medical personnel such as physicians, nurses, social workers, and psychologists, and measures to give patients effective pain relief, this holistic approach not only provides comprehensive hospital-to-home care, but also enhances the quality of care.
To promote hospice care within the community, the NHIA has continued its efforts to increase local hospital participation in integrated home health care teams and family doctor care teams. This initiative enables terminal patients to return to the
community and live out their lives in dignity. In 2017, the number of people who received NHI palliative home care totaled 10,686 people (an increase of 22% compared to 2016). From January to June, 2018, the number totaled 7,011 people (an increase of 18% compared to 2017), indicating a gradual increase in the number of terminal patients who received palliative care.
Enhancing Post-acute Care Quality
Under the “Post-acute Care Quality Enhancement Program” introduced by the NHIA in 2014, medical centers assist referral of patients to nearby community hospitals with post-acute care teams. This program provides short-term integrated rehabilitation care to post-acute patients who are disabled but have rehabilitation potential. The program initially targeted stroke patients on a trial basis, and was extended to burn patients in September 2015. A total of 176 hospitals nationwide have organized 38 participating teams since the start of the program, and over 4,000 cases were accepted in 2016. Of these patients, 87.6% enjoyed improvement in overall function, such as improvement from severe dependency to preliminary ability to perform self-care, and 88% were able to successfully return to their homes and life in the community. The program also reduced patients’ re-hospitalization rate and emergency treatment rate.
The NHIA’s revised “NHI Post-acute Integrated Care Program,” which was introduced on July 1, 2017, expanded the scope of patients’ eligible for care to include those with traumatic nerve injuries, insufficiency fractures, heart failure, and frailty due to old age, as well as the stroke and burn patients already covered by the program. To help patients receive care in the community, the revised program also incorporated an integrated post-acute
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