CAPS Releases New Transitions-in-Care Toolkit for Consumers
Toolkit helps patients and their families plan and work together with their healthcare team to ensure a safe hospital transition to follow-up care.
Chicago, July 10, 2009 — Hospital discharge is a time during which patients and families are at their most vulnerable. There is so much information they need to know, just when they may be least able to absorb, remember and act on it.
It is vital for members of the healthcare team to help patients leave the hospital with confidence, giving them the tools and information they need to make a smooth transition to their next destination. Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS) is pleased to announce the release of a toolkit titled, Taking Charge of your Healthcare: Your Path to Being an Empowered Patient. The toolkit provides you with the tools and resources you need to help improve the quality of care coordination and communication when patients are transferred from one level of care to another.
Transitions in care include a patient moving from primary care to specialty physicians; within the hospital it would include patients moving from the emergency department to various departments, such as surgery or intensive care; or when patients are discharged from the hospital and go home, into assisted living arrangements or into a skilled nursing facility.
Hospital discharge is not an event; it is a process. It is a process that takes time and should be started upon admission, if not sooner. Healthcare providers should give the tools in Taking Charge of your Healthcare: Your Path to Being an Empowered Patient to patients and families as soon as possible.
At the heart of safe discharge is clear communication and education for patients and families. Patients and families need to know:
- The importance of prompt follow-up care
- What to expect and what to do when they leave the hospital
- How to plan for their immediate and longer-term needs
Patients also need to be empowered to talk to their healthcare providers when they feel intimidated, and they need practical strategies for getting the most out of conversations with members of the healthcare team.
Healthcare providers know that patients’ and families’ feelings of fear, anxiety, insecurity and uncertainty, combined with their compromised medical conditions, make communication and understanding especially difficult precisely when their understanding is so essential. Taking Charge of your Healthcare: Your Path to Being an Empowered Patient is designed to help providers help patients during this critical time.
Patients know they don’t feel well. They or their family members who accompany them on their care journey may recognize that they could use some help in working with the healthcare team to contribute to the safety and effectiveness of the process. This toolkit will help both groups achieve the safety they desire.
The toolkit was developed as part of the Consumers Advancing Patient Safety Add Patients, Change Everything! initiative sponsored by sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC.
For more information, tools and resources on safe transitions in care, visit the National Transitions of Care Coalition at www.ntocc.org.
Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS) is a consumer-led non-profit organization formed to be a collective voice for individuals, families and healers who wish to prevent harm in healthcare encounters through partnership and collaboration. CAPS envisions a partnership between consumers and providers to create global healthcare systems that are safe, compassionate and just. Consumers are invited to become a member by visiting www.patientsafety.org.