burden that is felt within the home care field. Transmural care may be grouped into seven categories. I will describe these categories with you and give you one or two exmples of each category.
Screen 49 (epilogue: categorieen transmurale zorg)
The first one is 'home care technology'. It indicates that by file introduction of new techniques it is possible to provide traditional medical specialty care in the home setting. Examples are: patients who need intravenous pain treatment for cancer, or antibiotics to treat cystic fibrosis. The second category is 'before- and after-care in the primary care setting'. The obvious goal of this group of transmural care is to make an efficient use of the hospital resources. This can be done by having GPs perform extensive diagnostic work-ups before referring a patient to the hospital. Furthermore, by using minimally invasive surgical techniques it is possible for an increasing amount of uncomplicated surgery to be performed in day care settings. In this case the GP and the district nurse provide pro- and postoperative care. We have seen an example of this on the video, namely the woman that had to be operated.
Sometimes medical specialists are consulted in the primary care setting by GPs. This is a third category of transmural care.
Also in the nursing field are the specialized transmural nurses. They carry out activities that have traditionally been the domain of doctors, for instance for diabetic or asthma patients. They work in outpatient departments and make home visits.
A fifth category takes place between secondary and tertiary care, namely hospitals and nursing homes. Because of the waiting lists for nursing homes, a growing number of hospitals have either opened their own rehabilitation wards or have developed partnerships with local nursing homes to facilitate the transfer of patients,
