Bringing treatment home for adolescents with eating disorders.
Most adolescents avoided hospitalization during virtual intensive eating disorder treatment.
Bringing treatment home for adolescents with eating disorders.
The increasing demand for adolescent eating disorder services during and following the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated alternative treatment approaches.
To describe and evaluate the outcomes of the Hospital at Home (H@H) service, an innovative, virtual, intensive treatment programme designed to prevent in-patient admissions or shorten length of in-patient stay.
A prospective cohort of 71 consecutive admissions from October 2021 to December 2024 was established.
Only 9 of 71 adolescents needed inpatient admission during home-based virtual treatment.
Mean %mBMI increased significantly, from 82.4% (s.d.
Global Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire score improved significantly, from 3.75 (s.d.
Average CGAS improved significantly, from 38.7 (s.d.
Families and patients reported high satisfaction with the virtual care model.
This innovative model prevented hospital admissions, demonstrating clinical benefits and high user satisfaction. Expansion and further research are recommended to explore the long-term clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness.