[The experience of the Resting Home at the Center for Integral Women's Health Care of the State University of Campinas, Brazil].

The CAISM--Center for Integral Women's Health Care, of the Unicamp--State University of Campinas created a low complexity unit called a "Resting Home" according to the model adopted by other tertiary care centers in Brazil and in other countries. With 35 beds, the Resting Home staff includes two registered nurses, one social worker, and one occupational therapist. The institution admits women who have a high risk of acute complications of pregnancy or who require frequent check-up, mothers of premature babies under care in neonatal units who require their mother's breast feeding, and gynecological cancer patients who are in the process of staging and final diagnosis, or who are under frequent sessions of radiotherapy or chemotherapy. The common characteristic is that all of them need to go frequently to the outpatient services of the hospital, they live far away from the hospital, and they cannot afford rapid and easy transportation from their homes. The Resting Home offers them lodging and food, and a minimum of comfort (occupational therapy, TV, reading) at a cost that is only a small fraction of the cost of an inpatient. The authors present the statistics for the first 31 months of operation.