Continuity of health care

Transitional care refers to the coordination and continuity of health care during a movement from one healthcare setting to either another or to home, called care transition, between health care practitioners and settings as their condition and care needs change during the course of a chronic or acute illness. Older adults who suffer from a variety of health conditions often need health care services in different settings to meet their many needs. For young people the focus is on moving successfully from child to adult health services.

A recent position statement from the American Geriatrics Society defines transitional care as follows: For the purpose of this position statement, transitional care is defined as a set of actions designed to ensure the coordination and continuity of health care as patients transfer between different locations or different levels of care within the same location. Representative locations include (but are not limited to) hospitals, sub-acute and post-acute nursing homes, the patient’s home, primary and specialty care offices, and long-term care facilities. Transitional care is based on a comprehensive plan of care and the availability of health care practitioners who are well-trained in chronic care and have current information about the patient’s goals, preferences, and clinical status. It includes logistical arrangements, education of the patient and family, and coordination among the health professionals involved in the transition. Transitional care, which encompasses both the sending and the receiving aspects of the transfer, is essential for persons with complex care needs.

During transitions, patients with complex medical needs, primarily older patients, are at risk for poorer outcomes due to medication errors and other errors of communication among the involved healthcare providers and between providers and patients/family caregivers. Most research in the area of transitional care has studied the transition from hospitalization to the next provider setting – often a sub-acute nursing facility, a rehabilitation facility, or home either with or without professional homecare services. Adverse patient outcomes include continuation or recurrence of symptoms, temporary or permanent disability and death. Healthcare utilization outcomes for patients experiencing poor transitional care include returning to the emergency room or being readmitted to the hospital. As healthcare expenditures rise at an unsustainable rate there is increasing focus by patients, providers and policymakers on restraining unnecessary resource utilization such as that incurred by preventable re-hospitalizations.

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