Based on the assessment of the home health care services provided by our hospital over the past five years and the results of a survey of the people concerned, we studied the problems of home care and dwelt on what it should be in the future. An alarming fact was brought to light: Many of those who look after patients in their homes are stress-ridden. Even among those who said they are satisfied with the present care system, not a few expressed uncertainty about the future. Many were of the opinion that without option of putting the patients in hospitals or nursing homes if need be, the home health care system would not hold water.
Our hospital admits only those patients who are badly in need of hospital treatment, and technically many cases cannot be referred to general practitioners. To add to the development of home health care, it is necessary to establish a coll aborative system between hospitals and neighborhood clinics. Under the system, patients will be screened according to the degree of their need for medical care, and visiting nurses will be able to show their skill fully and provide care confidently while keeping close contact with physicians.

We recently encountered a case of fatal pneumococcal infection in a previously healthy 19-year-old female. She had no history of splenectomy, but on autopsy she was found to have hyposplenism. It has been widely reported that life-threatening pneumococcal infection can occur after splenectomy, though cases of hyposplenic or asplenic adults, without a history of splenectomy, are very rare. We report this case and review the literature dealing with 6 similar cases.