es place in the public health system in the city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul.

Method: It consists of a retrospective transversal descriptive study. Data from patients assisted by the home care service of a public hospital of Santa Maria (RS) were gathered in the first semester of 2002, outlining their features (age, sex, pathology, evolution, number of visits).

Results: In the first semester of 2002, 107 patients of Casa de Saúde in Santa Maria were assisted by the home care service. Most of them were adults (93,5%) and only 6,5% were under 15 years old. The youngest patient was 5 months of age whereas the oldest one was 92. The average age of all patients was 60 years old and 50,5% of them were elderly (over 65 years old). Each patient was visited about 3 or 4 times in a period of 20 days of home assistance. Among the reasons for domiciliary care, the main pathologies were respiratory diseases (35,5%), complications of neoplasia (12%), complications of cerebral vascular accidents (11%), cardiopathies 99%), urinary infections (9%) and cutaneous infections (6,5%). As to the clinical evolution observed, 59% of the patients were discharged from the program after having recovered, 28% of them passed on, 7% had no alteration to their clinical picture and 6% were led to other institutions. There was a positive correlation between the patients’ age and the deaths (r=0,63; p<0,05). There was no correlation between age and time of being assisted by the home care service.

Conclusions: According to the data obtained, it is noticed that great part of the population benefited by the home care service in Santa Maria (RS) consists of elderly people having chronic diseases which require frequent returns to the hospital due to clinical decompensation. The service of domiciliary care contributes to the shortening of hospital stays and makes the patient’ s clinical rehabilitation possible in his own residence.

KEY WORDS: Home Care Services, Assistance for the Elderly, Quality of Life, Chronic Disease, Family Nucleus.