Home Care by Otolaryngologists

Abstract

There has been discussion on the problem of increasing medical costs associated with aging of the society in Japan, which has led to the current promotion of home care. Although home care is provided mainly for conditions in the field of internal medicine, otolaryngologists also play a significant role. From our clinic, home visits were provided for 183 patients (a total of 483 visits) over the course of 3 years and 10 months, from March 2013 to December 2016. Of the visits, 75.2% were for the treatment of dysphagia, in cooperation with home-visit nursing rehabilitation stations. The second most common indication for the home visits was auditory disorders, including hearing loss, followed by management of the trachea and malignant tumors of the head and neck. Since many elderly suffer from dysphagia and hearing loss, otolaryngologists can play an important role in increasing the QOL of these patients at home. There are various problems in the delivery of home care by otolaryngologists and these concerns should be actively addressed.