When a new form of care was developed to give children “at-home” care at the lodgings adjoining Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital, Stockholm, its staff were quickly dubbed “Night Angels”. Thanks to modern ICT technology, a mobile care unit is now able to give children specialized care at home, 24 hours a day.

The idea for this new form of care – Hospital Managed Advanced Care for Children in Their Homes (SABH) – was born in the late 1990s. Today, the SABH concept has grown into its own department within Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital, a part of Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. 

The SABH department includes multi-professional mobile teams of pediatricians, nurses, children’s nurses and assistant nurses. When required, other kinds of healthcare professionals – everyone from social workers and dieticians to physiotherapists – can also join these teams. This makes it possible to provide the same care at home as would be provided in a modern healthcare facility.

Even when in the field, the care teams continue to be an integrated part of the hospital department thanks to access to networks and patient journals via laptop computers and cell phones. Both premature babies and children suffering from severe chronic diseases alike can be cared for in a familiar, comfortable home environment.

This form of care offers great flexibility, given that the number of beds can be increased or decreased according to demand. Home-based care has also proven to be financially advantageous for families, as it reduces the number of trips made to hospitals and helps parents to return to work faster, for example.

In an analysis performed by independent experts, SABH was found to be both cost-efficient and to provide high-quality medical care thanks to its use of simple, modern technology.

SABH has been part-financed by the Telemedicare Project, part of the EU’s Fifth Framework Programme for RTD. The Telemedicare project has contributed to the development of a technological prototype for the wireless monitoring of care in the home environment.