What Is Home Ward in Thailand? NHSO Inpatient Care at Home: Who Qualifies, What Families Must Prepare, and How It Differs from Hiring a Caregiver

Home Ward is inpatient care at home. The hospital admits your parent as an inpatient in the usual way, but your parent recovers in their own bed instead of a hospital ward. The hospital's doctors, nurses and team remain responsible for treatment, follow your parent according to plan, and have a 24-hour system to bring them back to hospital if their condition worsens (agree in advance how the return journey will work). Thailand's Department of Medical Services defines it as home treatment to a standard comparable with a hospital stay, and the National Health Security Office (NHSO) pays participating providers under the Universal Coverage ("gold card") scheme. You cannot sign up yourself, and it is not the same as hiring home care. The attending doctor decides whether it suits your parent.

Many families first hear the term in hospital, when the doctor asks, "Would you like to continue treatment at home under Home Ward?" The family is relieved, but wonders who to call if a fever starts at 2 a.m., and who will stay with their parent during working hours. This article explains who qualifies, how NHSO coverage works in 2026, what the home needs, and how it differs from hiring a caregiver or nurse yourself.

Quick answer

• Home Ward ("inpatient care at home") is inpatient treatment delivered by a hospital team while your parent stays at home. It is not an ordinary home-visit service.
• The attending doctor decides whether your parent qualifies. Their condition must be stable, and your parent and family must receive full information and give consent before it begins.
• As a general readiness criterion, Department of Medical Services guidance says the home should be no more than 20 kilometres from the hospital, easy to travel back from, reachable by phone or internet, and safe. Hospitals judge each case.
• As of October 2026, NHSO pays Universal Coverage providers for Home Ward according to the diagnosis code groups it announces. Not every hospital offers it, so ask the hospital treating your parent or call the NHSO hotline 1330.
• The hospital handles treatment. Watching over your parent and helping with daily routines, such as turning, feeding and going to the toilet, is still the family's job. A caregiver you hire can help here, alongside Home Ward.
• KIN HomeCare is not an NHSO Home Ward provider. We help with day-to-day care that follows the hospital's plan.

1. What is Home Ward?

Home Ward is when a hospital admits your parent as an inpatient and then continues treatment at home to a standard comparable with a hospital stay. Department of Medical Services guidance describes it as being for people who need hospital treatment but find it hard to stay in hospital, whose family is ready to help, whose home has some essential medical equipment, and who have suitable support from the hospital.

The same guidance says Home Ward relies on "the cooperation of relatives or caregivers" to help assess symptoms and communicate with the medical team. Put simply, the ward moves into your home, but no nurse sits outside the door all day. The people at home watch for symptoms and tell the medical team when something changes.

The guidance describes three models:

1. Hospital first, then home. Treatment starts in hospital; once the doctor, your parent and the family agree they are ready, treatment continues at home under the same hospital.
2. Referral to a hospital closer to home. Treatment starts at one hospital, then a second hospital takes over and provides inpatient care at home.
3. Starting at home. After an outpatient or emergency assessment, the doctor decides treatment can happen at home, or a primary care doctor examines a housebound or bedbound parent at home.

2. Who qualifies for Home Ward, and who decides?

The attending doctor assesses whether your parent qualifies and decides together with your parent and family. Families can ask the doctor to consider it, but cannot apply directly: the doctor must judge that your parent still needs inpatient care and can be managed safely at home.

The main criteria in Department of Medical Services guidance:

• Stable condition: stable vital signs, and the doctor judges the risk of deterioration low enough to manage at home
• Still needs inpatient-level care from doctors, nurses and allied health staff (if your parent only needs help with daily living, that is not Home Ward)
• A shared decision between the doctor, your parent and the family after full information about inpatient care at home, with consent before starting; some hospitals ask families to sign an agreement so everyone understands the arrangement
• A readiness assessment of your parent, the caregiver and the home. Some conditions have explicit caregiver rules: the third edition of the guidance (June 2026) requires a caregiver present 24 hours a day for the first 3 days after wrist fracture surgery, and a main caregiver able to help with turning and daily care around the clock for hip fracture

What many families don't realise: the team assesses the caregiver, not just the patient. The guidance asks the team to look at the caregiver's emotional readiness and level of exhaustion, especially someone who has been caring for a bedbound parent for a long time. If no one at home can stay with your parent, the doctor may decide it is not yet safe enough.

3. NHSO Home Ward in 2026: gold card coverage and disease groups

As of October 2026, NHSO pays providers in the Universal Coverage system for inpatient care at home, according to the rules and diagnosis code groups it announces. On 13 August 2026, NHSO issued a notice to all providers clarifying how Home Ward should be delivered and claimed. It stressed two points: the patient's home should follow Department of Medical Services guidance (no more than 20 kilometres away and easy to travel to the hospital), and hospitals must record a daily health report, including pulse, blood pressure, temperature and breathing rate, on every day of service.

What families should know:

• Eligible diagnoses can change with each announcement. NHSO sets them as lists of diagnosis codes and updated them during 2026, which is why news sources quote different numbers of disease groups. The reliable approach is to ask the doctor: "Does my parent's condition this time meet the hospital's Home Ward criteria?"
• Examples where the Department of Medical Services has published guidance include urinary tract infection, pneumonia, pressure ulcers, high blood pressure, high blood sugar in type 2 diabetes, flare-ups of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, care for patients in the final days of life at home, and, in the third edition (June 2026), care after wrist fracture surgery, hip fracture, and peritonitis linked to peritoneal dialysis. This is clinical guidance, not a list of entitlements that replaces the doctor's judgement.
• Not every hospital offers Home Ward, and those that do may accept only certain conditions, depending on their team and readiness.
• Other schemes, such as civil servant benefits, social security or private insurance: ask the hospital's patient rights office whether a similar service exists and which costs you would pay yourself.

If you are unsure about your parent's entitlements, call the NHSO hotline 1330 or ask the patient rights office at the hospital treating your parent.

4. What does the hospital provide during Home Ward?

The hospital remains in charge of all treatment, from medicines and tests to monitoring and readmission. Department of Medical Services guidance lists what the facility should have, so you can ask the hospital whether it is all in place.

• A team of doctors, registered nurses, pharmacists and other professionals as needed, such as physiotherapists and dietitians
• Equipment the hospital lends, depending on the condition and each hospital's system, such as a blood pressure monitor, thermometer, fingertip pulse oximeter and blood glucose meter; ask which items the hospital provides and which the family must prepare
• Medicines and supplies according to the treatment standard for each condition, plus a fast-track system for lab samples or X-rays
• Monitoring on the schedule set by the condition's guidance and the team's plan, which varies by condition (for example, some post-surgery groups are followed up at 24, 48 and 72 hours), by home visit, phone or video call
• A 24-hour contact channel and a system to readmit your parent at any hour if they deteriorate
• Inpatient-style medical records, including treatment orders, nursing notes and forms the family helps fill in, such as blood pressure, temperature and oxygen readings

If the hospital asks the family to take readings and report them, check you are using the devices correctly with our guides on reading a fingertip pulse oximeter and measuring blood pressure reliably at home. Readings taken the wrong way can mislead the medical team.

5. What should the family prepare before Home Ward starts?

You need a main caregiver who can be with your parent, a safe home, and a working way to reach the hospital. Sorting out these three things before discharge day makes the first night much calmer.

People

• Agree who the main caregiver is: the person who takes the team's calls, takes readings and reports symptoms.
• Draw up a rota of who is with your parent and when, especially weekday daytime and nights. If there are times with no caregiver, arrange cover before your parent comes home.
• Before discharge, have the main caregiver learn readings, medicines and danger signs from the nurse.

Home

• A well-lit bedroom with a clear path to the bathroom
• A separate space for medicines and the equipment on loan from the hospital
• Ask the team how to store and return clinical waste such as gauze; put any needles or sharps in a rigid, lidded container as the team instructs, never in household rubbish
• If your parent cannot get out of bed alone, ask whether an adjustable bed or a wheelchair is needed

Contact

• The Home Ward team's 24-hour number, saved on everyone's phone
• Phone signal or home internet good enough for video calls
• A route and means of transport to the hospital in case of an urgent return

Questions to ask the hospital before starting (see more in questions to ask before leaving hospital):

1. Does my parent's condition this time meet the Home Ward criteria, and roughly how many days will it last?
2. Who will monitor my parent, how often, how, and will anyone visit?
3. Which symptoms mean we should call straight away, and which number do we call?
4. If my parent must go back to hospital, who arranges transport?
5. Which costs are covered by my parent's scheme, and which do we pay ourselves?
6. If we hire a caregiver to help, how should we let the team know?

6. How does Home Ward differ from hiring a caregiver or home-visit nurse yourself?

Home Ward is hospital treatment. Hiring a caregiver or nurse yourself provides help with daily living and procedures that follow the doctor's plan. The two can be used together. The key differences:

Home Ward from the hospital

• The attending doctor orders treatment, adjusts medicines, orders tests and decides on readmission
• It starts when the doctor confirms your parent qualifies and ends when the doctor discharges them from the programme
• The team checks in at set times; they are not at the house all day

A caregiver or nurse the family hires

• Stays with your parent for the hired shift, helping with bathing, sponge baths, meals and medicines as prescribed, turning, changing adult diapers, taking vital signs and walking
• Does not order or change treatment; follows the hospital's plan
• Can be hired both during Home Ward and afterwards

How to combine them safely:

• Tell the Home Ward team you have a hired caregiver, with their name and shift times, so the team knows who reports symptoms during the day.
• Give the caregiver the hospital's care plan and medicine list, and have them record readings on the hospital's forms.
• Never change treatment yourselves, such as medicines, tube feeds or dressings. If in doubt, call the hospital team.
• Procedures such as injections or complex wound care follow the plan and channels the Home Ward team has set up. If you think extra help is needed during the day, check with the team first.

To see what a nurse you hire can do, read what a home-visit nurse can do.

7. When should you call the Home Ward team?

Follow the thresholds the hospital team gives you for your parent's condition first, because each condition has different readings to watch. The general guide below helps families avoid hesitating when a decision matters.

Keep caring at home and watch closely

• Readings are within the range the team called normal, your parent is eating and drinking as usual for them, and is alert
• Somewhat tired but no worse than the day before; keep recording readings and report at the usual times

Call a nurse for advice today

• Readings start to move outside the range the team set, or a new fever appears
• Clearly eating or drinking less, passing less urine, or unable to take medicines
• A wound, tube or drip site is swollen, red, leaking or has come out
• During Home Ward, "a nurse" here means the hospital team caring for your parent; call the 24-hour number they gave you

Go to hospital or call 1669 now

• Breathing much harder, bluish lips, or unable to speak in full sentences
• Increasingly drowsy and hard to wake, suddenly confused, a drooping face, weakness on one side, or slurred speech
• Chest pain or tightness, a seizure, loss of consciousness, or a fall with a head injury
• For these symptoms, call 1669 straight away without first trying the Home Ward team. Tell the dispatcher which hospital is providing your parent's inpatient care at home, and have someone else at home call the Home Ward team at the same time. Prepare the information in advance with our 1669 emergency plan for older adults.

Common mistakes families make

• Assuming Home Ward means a nurse at home all day, so no one stays with your parent while they are still unwell. Set up a caregiver rota before discharge.
• Asking for Home Ward at a hospital that is not treating your parent. Entry starts with the doctor managing this illness, so begin with the attending doctor.
• Taking readings late or not sending them. The team assesses your parent from your data. Set alarms for the agreed times.
• A hired caregiver who doesn't know the hospital's plan, so a medicine is given twice or the wrong feed is used. Give the latest plan to every caregiver on shift.
• Hesitating to call at night for fear of bothering the team. The 24-hour line is there for exactly those moments. If symptoms match the list above, call straight away.

When to bring in professional help

KIN HomeCare is not an NHSO Home Ward provider. Treatment, medicines and decisions about readmission belong to the hospital caring for your parent. What our team can help with is the daily care the family would otherwise do alone, both during Home Ward and afterwards.

Signs your family may need help: everyone works during the day, the main caregiver is up several times a night, or the doctor says the home does not yet have enough people for Home Ward.

• Caregivers at home stay with your parent, help with daily routines, take and record vital signs on the hospital's forms, and give meals and medicines as prescribed. A 12-hour shift is 1,800 baht a day (day 08:00–20:00 or night 20:00–08:00); a 24-hour live-in shift is 2,500 baht a day. Daily bookings have a minimum of 3 days and a 2,000 baht deposit. Care usually starts within 2–3 days, and you can see caregiver profiles first. See elderly home care.
• Registered nurses: a 12-hour shift is 3,500 baht a day, for families who want a nurse at home after discharge from Home Ward, or per-visit procedures that follow the doctor's plan, from 1,200 baht. See home nursing.
• Hospital escort for follow-up appointments after discharge: a caregiver collects your parent from home, stays with them throughout and brings them back, 1,800 baht for 8 hours. See hospital escort.

KIN HomeCare services are not covered by the Universal Coverage scheme. We issue receipts and medical certificates for insurance claims, subject to your policy's terms.

Frequently asked questions

What is Home Ward?

Home Ward is inpatient care at home. A hospital admits your parent as an inpatient but treats them at home; its doctors and nurses follow their condition every day and readmit them if things get worse. The Department of Medical Services sets a standard comparable with a hospital stay.

Which conditions are covered by NHSO Home Ward in 2026?

NHSO sets eligible diagnosis code groups by announcement and updated them in 2026, so the list can change. Examples with Department of Medical Services guidance include urinary tract infection, pneumonia, pressure ulcers and flare-ups of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Ask the attending doctor whether your parent's condition qualifies, or call the NHSO hotline 1330.

Can we apply for Home Ward ourselves?

No. It starts with the attending doctor assessing that your parent qualifies, is stable and has a ready home, then deciding together with your parent and family. You can ask the doctor to consider it, ideally while your parent is still in hospital.

How long does Home Ward last?

There is no single number of days. The doctor decides based on the condition, symptoms, test results and the hospital's discharge criteria. When your parent meets those criteria, the doctor discharges them from Home Ward and arranges follow-up. Ask on day one roughly how long it is expected to last so the family can plan leave and caregiver cover.

What does Home Ward cover, and what do we pay ourselves?

As of October 2026, NHSO pays gold card hospitals for the Home Ward service. For costs outside the service package, such as personal items, equipment the hospital does not provide, transport, or a caregiver the family hires, ask the hospital's patient rights office before starting which items the family pays for, or call the NHSO hotline 1330.

If we can't cope at home, can our parent go back into hospital?

Talk to the team. Home Ward starts with your parent's and family's consent. If things change at home, for example the caregiver falls ill or can't cope, call the Home Ward team so they can reassess and agree how your parent returns to hospital. In an emergency, call 1669 straight away.

Does KIN HomeCare provide Home Ward?

No. KIN HomeCare is not an NHSO Home Ward provider. We provide caregivers, registered nurses, home physiotherapy and hospital escorts, which families can use alongside a hospital's Home Ward.

Talk to the KIN HomeCare team

If the doctor is about to send your mother or father home to continue treatment, and no one can be with them all day, call us for a chat first. Tell us how the hospital plans to follow up and when the family is free, and our team will help you work out which hours need extra cover.

• Call 061-881-9399 (+66 61 881 9399) (caregivers · registered nurses · hospital escort)
• LINE @KINHOMECARE
• Get a caregiver or nurse estimate yourself with our service request form
• Free consultation; caregivers and nurses come to homes nationwide; travel costs depend on the area and staff confirm them before booking.

Entitlement information as of October 2026 · This article is general information for families and does not replace advice from your parent's doctor. Please confirm your parent's entitlements with the hospital or NHSO.

Written by Orrathai Boontuang, RN (licence 5311192883) · Medically reviewed by Dr. Kamolchat Choktanomsup (licence 40854) · Prices as of October 2026; please confirm with our staff before booking.