Hospital-at-Home Education as Implementation Tool - RCT

Summary

To enhance implementation of Hospital-at-home (HaH) in Scandinavia, the Nordic Digital Health \& Education (NorDigHE) project has developed a comprehensive virtual education on HaH for clinical staff. The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate whether an online education for clinical staff can enhance the implementation of HaH services in hospitals across Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

The primary outcome of the RCT is HaH implementation measured at organization level, understood as a change in clinical practice by increased HaH activity. Secondary outcomes are HaH knowledge and motivation among clinical staff as well as patient days in hospital, days hospitalized at home, 30-day readmission, and mortality.

Researchers will compare hospitals receiving the NorDigHE education (intervention group) to hospitals continuing treatment as usual (control group) to see if the education leads to greater adoption of HaH and changes in service delivery.

Participants will:

* Complete baseline, 3-month, and 6-month surveys assessing HaH activity, staff knowledge, and motivation.
* Participate in a 12-month follow-up assessment (intervention group only).
* Be invited (patients, staff, and management) to take part in semi-structured interviews to share experiences and preferences related to HaH.
* (For staff in the intervention group) Complete the NorDigHE virtual education program embedded in the WHO Fast-IM.

After the study, the control group will be offered access to the NorDigHE education as a participant retention measure.

Conditions

• Hospital

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

HaH education

The intervention consists of the online NorDigHE HaH education with tailored implementation tools em-bedded in the WHO Fast-IM. The education is delivered online and asynchronously, combining e-learning, simulations, reflection exercises, and practical task training. The trial has adopted the evidence-based WHO Fast-track Implementation Model (WHO Fast-IM) as a framework to support the effectiveness and reporting of the implementation, and the tailored implementation tools embedded in the model will be provided as part of the intervention to support in-tegration into daily clinical routines. The tailored toolbox consists of workshops, introductory meetings, written guides, and access to a hotline staffed by project specialists to facilitate implementation.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Sahlgrenska University Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• Lund University

  collaborator OTHER

• University College Copenhagen

  collaborator OTHER

• Ostfold University College

  collaborator OTHER

• Region Capital Denmark

  collaborator OTHER

• Nordsjaellands Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Thea K Fischer · Forskningsafdelingen, Nordsjællands Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-09-01

Primary Completion

2026-12-31

Completion

2026-12-31

Countries

• Denmark
• Norway
• Sweden

Study Locations