Hospital in the Home: Rethinking Home, Care, and Professionalism from a Transdisciplinary Perspective

Healthcare is rapidly moving into the home to address the challenges of rising costs of hospital care, shortage of healthcare staff, and patient preferences. Hospital in the Home (HITH) is one model addressing these challenges; however, this model poses new challenges to the home, patients, relatives, and healthcare professionals. Derived from presentations and discussions at a transdisciplinary workshop and subsequent collaboration, four themes relevant and essential for future transdisciplinary research on HITH are proposed, namely, 1) HITH Definitions and their Implications; 2) The Home - Materiality, Atmosphere, and Everyday Life; 3) The Professions - the Home as a Workplace for Healthcare Professionals; and 4) Social Networks - Relatives, Patients, and Responsibilities. We argue that a transdisciplinary research- and practice-informed approach to HITH offers integrated problem-solving and the possibility of asking new and innovative questions and reaching a wider professional audience.