An Internet Hospital Plus Home Nursing Model for Chronic Disease Patients: Mixed-Methods Study in Tianjin, China.
Yuzhe Wang, Yingchun Liu, Ziqi Jin and 3 others
PMID 41191794WHAT IT FOUND
Home nursing delivered after online doctor consultations served mostly older adults with cancer.
Patients waited one to two days and reported near-perfect satisfaction. Simulated costs were lower than ambulance transfers, but the study lacked a control group, so it cannot prove the model works better than standard care.
Key findings
01Patients aged 60 and older accounted for 86.2% of applications, and those with oncological diagnoses made up the largest disease group at 19.8% of applications.
02Intravenous blood collection was the most frequent service requested, accounting for 66.1% of all applications.
03Nurses who completed the survey supported the model, but 90.7% identified sudden patient illness without timely medical support as the main safety risk.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study had no control group, so it cannot determine if the model is better than standard care, only that it was used and liked. Cost savings were based on simulated ambulance transfers rather than actual patient outcomes or real-world comparisons. Satisfaction scores were near-ceiling (99.8/100), which may reflect social desirability bias or a lack of sensitivity in the survey tool rather than perfect service quality. The study was single-center and conducted in an economically developed urban area, limiting applicability to rural or resource-poor settings. Nurses were surveyed only if they had already participated in the service, potentially excluding those who refused due to safety or workload concerns.
Declared interests
None declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the near-perfect satisfaction scores and simulated cost savings as proof that this model is clinically superior or safer than hospital-based care. The study lacked a control group, used simulated rather than actual transfer costs, and relied on a satisfaction survey with limited sensitivity that may have inflated positive responses.