Evaluation of home healthcare services in Ankara province: A qualitative study

Introduction and Aim: Home health services provide medical care at home for people who need health care. The importance of home health services has increased with the enlargement of elderly population in the world and also in our country. This study aims to evaluate the current situation of the units providing home health services after the merger of home health services in the city center of Ankara. Materials and Methods: Our research is qualitative type. Three Home Health Services Units (HHSU) in the center of Ankara were included in this study and face-to-face interviews were conducted with responsible physicians and responsible nurses of these centers. Semi-structured interview technique was used in the interviews. The data were analyzed with the qualitative method. Results: The participants stated there are positive and negative aspects of the merger. The increasing distances after the merger have been evaluated negatively. They stated that the time spent on the road reduces the number of patients cared for and causes fatigue in the staff. Half of the participants stated that the support given to them by the management increased after the merger. Most of the physicians and nurses stated that there should be changes in the home health care legislation. All of the participants stated that physicians and nurses working in HHSU should receive special training. They stated that especially with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of patients has increased much more than before, and there are many inappropriate applications such as mobile patients. Most of the participants stated that the number of fixed physicians in their units was insufficient and therefore there were teams of only nurses without physicians instead of with physicians. Although physicians and nurses were generally pleased to work in home health services, they stated that improving working conditions and increasing wages would increase the motivation of the employees. Conclusion: The importance of home health services is increasing day by day as a result of the increase in the average human lifespan and consequently chronic diseases. To provide quality service to patients in need of home care, first of all, it is necessary to provide a good working environment for the employees. Although it was seen that the merger of home health services in 4 centers is positive in terms of increasing the quality of service and standardizing the service, there are still areas that need improvement and gaps that need to be closed in issues such as lack of legislation and fixed personnel. Also, additional payment and training gaps are another issue.