Nutrition support, home care

Other support therapies for AIDS patients that can be given at home are nutrition support, parenteral and enteral, IV immunoglobulins, chemotherapy in lymphoma or Kaposi s sarcoma, and care of terminally ill patients. 

However, home care can also give support to the patient with cancer in other areas parenteral antibiotics in febrile neutropenia, nutrition and fluid support, or pain support. 

The candidates for home nutrition support should be clinically stable patients that require enteral or parenteral nutrition for a long term. Before initiation of home nutrition support, a nutrition assessment and a care plan should be performed and after initiation nutrition status should be monitored on a regular basis. 

Advances in technology for the delivery of intravenous solutions have allowed medically stable patients who require extended PN therapy to be maintained indefinitely on intravenous nutrition. An increasing concern for cost containment of health care services has fostered use of sophisticated infusion devices to provide PN at home. Numerous programs are now available outside the traditional health care setting to support patients with various long-term or permanent medical conditions. Standards have been developed to promote safe and effective care. Home PN services may be coordinated and administered through a hospital, by a commercially operated corporation, or through a joint venture between the two. 

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