Characteristics of home care supporting clinics providing home care for frail elderly persons living alone in Japan

To explore the characteristics of home care supporting clinics providing home care for frail elderly persons living alone (EPLA), a self-administered questionnaire was mailed to 998 home care supporting clinics in the 23 wards of Tokyo, Japan between July and August 2009. Clinics providing home care for the frail EPLA significantly collaborated with 4 or more home visit nursing stations (42.5%) and 4 or more care managers (58.7%) and had sufficient medical care equipment, such as an oxygen inhaler, ventilator, and intravenous hyperalimentation. Sixty-one percent of the clinics which provided care for the 18 patients who died at home collaborated with 4 or more care managers. Our findings suggest that the factors enabling home care for frail EPLA are as follows: (1) collaboration with care managers, (2) collaboration with home visit nursing stations, (3) sufficient medical care equipment.