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What is Transitional Care?

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When talking about transitional medicine or transitional care, it is basically referring to the continuity and coordination of health care throughout movement from a certain healthcare facility to a different one or perhaps, back to the patient’s home. Well basically, this is referred to as the transition between health care practitioners and establishments for the reason that both of their care and condition is changing while facing acute or chronic illness.

And in relation to seniors, particularly the ones who have several health conditions, they are mostly in need of health care services that have to be done in different settings in an effort to ensure that their varying needs are satisfied. On the other hand, for younger adults, the focus is more on how to successfully move adult to child health services by this company.

As per the American Geriatrics Society or AGS, they define transitional medicine as a series of actions meant to guarantee the coordination and the continuity of health care as patients are being transferred between locations or on different levels of care in the same facility or location. The representatives however include but not limited to sub-acute as well as post-acute nursing homes, hospitals, primary and specialty care offices, patient’s home and even long term care facilities. Visit https://www.britannica.com/science/medical-research for more facts.

Transitional care is centered on comprehensive plan of care and the availability of health care experts who are trained with regards to chronic care at the same time. Not only that, practitioners must be able to have current information about the preferences, clinical status and goals of the patient. Additionally, this consists of educating the family and the patient, logistical arrangements and coordination among healthcare professionals involved during the transition.

While moving on transition stage, the patients who do receive complex medical needs, normally older patients are actually at greater risks of facing poorer outcomes because of communication errors and/or medication errors among different providers and patients/family caregivers and providers involved. There have been numerous studies that were performed in the subject of transitional care and look further into transition from hospitalization to the next provider setting which is oftentimes a rehab center, sub-acute nursing facility or home either with a professional homecare service or none. And in relation to the poor outcome of the transition, this mostly includes temporary or even permanent disability, recurrence or continuation of symptoms and worse, death.

The outcome of healthcare utilization among patients who are experiencing unsatisfactory transitional medicine sometimes include returning to emergency room or even readmission to the hospital. With the unexpected and constant rise in healthcare expenditure, it resulted to more attention on providers, policymakers and patients on restraining unnecessary use of resources. You may read more here.