Key message

The Commission forum for the Regional Health Authorities (RHA), in the National System for Managed Introduction of New Health Technologies within the Specialist Health Service (1), commissioned the Norwegian Institute of Public Health to identify research on the effect of hospital at home, and for which patients the method might be best suited.

Method

We conducted a systematic literature search to identify systematic reviews and health technology assessments (systematic reviews henceforth) about hospital at home in medical databases in September 2017. Two authors independently screened the reviews for inclusion according to the inclusion criteria. A third author peer reviewed the selection of included reviews.

Results

The search identified 1858 unique systematic reviews of which 49 were included. In 33 of the 49 included systematic reviews, specific diagnoses were described. The diagnosis that was described the most was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (7 systematic reviews), followed by kidney disease (5), cancer (4), birth related diagnosis (3), acute or chronic disease (3), mental health (2), palliative care/end-of-life care (2), cystic fibrosis (1), diabetes (1), deep vein thrombosis (1), HIV/AIDS (1), heart failure (1), osteoarthritis (1), and stroke (1). The remaining 16 systematic reviews described hospital at home in more general terms, or they included more than one diagnosis.