The American College of Physicians, Society of Hospital Medicine, and Society of General Internal Medicine convened a multi-stakeholder consensus conference in July 2007 to address the quality gaps in the transitions between inpatient and outpatient settings and to develop consensus standards for these transitions. Over 30 organizations sent representatives to the Transitions of Care Consensus ...

BACKGROUND UK policy guidance on treatment and care towards the end of life identifies a need to better recognise patients who are likely to be in the last 12 months of life. Health and social care professionals have a key role in initiating and managing a patient's transition from 'curative care' to palliative care. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic review of evidence relating t...

Transitioning from the critical care unit to the medical-surgical care area is vital to patients' recovery and resolution of critical illness. Such transitions are necessary to optimize use of available hospital resources to meet patient care needs. One in 10 patients discharged from the intensive care unit are readmitted to the unit during their hospitalization. Critical care readmission is as...

The challenge of sustainable development presents our society with the need for long-term structural changes or transitions in sectors such as energysupply, mobility, agriculture and health-care. Based on a multi-phase and multi-level framework for transitions, we ask whether managing transitions is possible, and then outline an operational method for transition management.

Introduction The educational needs of the health and social care workforce for delivering effective integrated care are important. This paper reports on the development, pilot and evaluation of an interprofessional simulation course, which aimed to support integrated care models for care transitions for older people from hospital to home. Theory and methods The course development was informed...

Anticoagulation is an effective therapeutic means of reducing thrombotic risk in patients with various conditions, including atrial fibrillation, mechanical heart valves, and major surgery. By its nature, anticoagulation increases the risk of bleeding; this risk is particularly high during transitions of care. Established anticoagulants are not ideal, due to requirements for parenteral administ...

PURPOSE to compare cross-nationally the sources and rates of admission and discharge in nursing homes. METHODS data on admission were used from the Minimum Data Set of the Resident Assessment Instrument as collected in a multi-nation database at the University of Michigan. Additional data containing longitudinal episodes were used from databases in the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA. ...

Background. Organizing and performing patient transfers in the continuum of care is part of the work of nurses and other staff of a multiprofessional healthcare team. An understanding of discharge practices is needed in order to ultimate patients' transfers from high technological intensive care units (ICU) to general wards. Aim. To describe, as experienced by intensive care and general ward st...

Transitions of care-when patients move from one health care facility to another or back home-that are poorly executed result in adverse effects for patients. Fortunately, programs can be implemented that enhance collaboration across care settings and improve outcomes including reducing hospital readmission rates.