Unplanned hospital admissions in Ontario account for $1.2 billion in health care spending. However, to date little attention has been paid to the unique needs of ‘hospital hold’ home care recipients that transition from home to hospital and back home again. Although home care has been associated with delayed and reduced hospital use, a proportion of home care recipients will require care in hospital.

To better support this client group and develop client-driven care solutions and strategies, we must first have a better understanding of the ‘hospital hold’ client population as well as their personal experiences, needs, and ideas. Therefore, the goal of this project is to shed light on who is receiving home care services and experiencing transitions to hospital through (1) a retrospective review of VHA Home HealthCare’s client administrative data and (2) interviews and journey mapping with patients to understand their experiences, thoughts, and emotions.