Managing Transitions and Ensuring Good Care

Managing transitions and ensuring good care.

An article in this issue describes principles of “transition management” developed by the American Association of Community Psychiatrists (AACP). Although the association’s efforts are commendable, I believe that the principles do not reflect some of the realities of providing community care. First, AACP offers little definition of “transition” beyond “moving from one level of care to another” ...

Multicultural Medicine and Ensuring Good Health

This article explores health disparities and the effects of race and ethnicity on health care quality. It emphasizes the importance of cross-cultural training and two areas that can make a difference in delivering health care services to minorities: 1) establishing national guidelines and standards for culturally competent care; and 2) improving the healthcare educational pipeline and incorpora...

Health Care in the Community: Developing Academic/Practice Partnerships for Care Coordination and Managing Transitions.

The delivery of health care is quickly changing from an acute care to a community-based setting. Faculty development and mastery in the use of new technologies, such as high-definition simulation and virtual communities are crucial for effective student learning outcomes. Students' benefits include opportunities for hands-on experience in various patient care scenarios, realtime faculty feedbac...

Ensuring Patient Safety in Care Transitions: An Empirical Evaluation of a Handoff Intervention Tool

Successful handoffs ensure smooth, efficient and safe patient care transitions. Tools and systems designed for standardization of clinician handoffs often focuses on ensuring the communication activity during transitions, with limited support for preparatory activities such as information seeking and organization. We designed and evaluated a Handoff Intervention Tool (HAND-IT) based on a checkl...

OFFSETS: INCENTIvIzING REDUCTIONS wHIlE mANAGING UNCERTAINTy AND ENSURING INTEGRITy