Rising Readmission Rates: Transitional Care Programs Combatting Critical Diseases - Essay Sample

Introduction

In the recent past, there has been an increase in cases of patient readmissions in hospitals. Readmission is the process through which patients are admitted again in the hospitals after being discharged. Patients with critical diseases and chronic illnesses are the primary causes of readmissions of patients. In a bid to control the rate of these cases, healthcare organizations and personnel have developed transitional care programs that enable them to take care of the patients from a different location or at home. Transitional care primarily involves conducting a follow up of patients to determine the progress of their health conditions. However, in the current days, the quality of transitional care has been decreased, thus resulting in an increased rate of readmissions of the patients. There are various methods of improving the current state of transitional care to prevent the cases of avoidable readmissions in healthcare institutions.

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The Current Process of Transitional Care

In the current days, there are various ways of offering transitional care to patients. Medical practitioners provide nutritional care, emotional support, patient education, medication, and follow up programs are among the current methods of transitional care provided to patients. Nutritional care, for instance, involves the provision of guidelines on the specific foods that should be consumed by the patients according to their particular diseases (Kaever, O'Meara, Mukhtar & McHugh, 2018). In the current nutritional care process, patients are offered inadequate details of the diet to consume while at home. As a result, the conditions of the illness deteriorate, resulting in the recurrent readmissions of the patients to the hospitals. Ideally, the current nutritional aspect of transitional care is inadequate and of poor quality.

The current emotional aspect of transitional care also has been ineffective. Patients with chronic illness and under critical conditions require frequent and quality emotional support. The medical practitioners are required to offer moral support to the patients by encouraging them and giving them hope. Emotional support helps to reduce anxiety and stress that eventually leads to depression among the patients (Clarke, Bourn, Skoufalos, Beck & Castillo, 2017). However, in the current days, medical practitioners have inadequate skills to offer emotional support to the patients. Consequently, when the patients are discharged, they lack individuals to encourage them. As a result, the patients develop further complications such as depression that leads to their readmission to the hospitals. Primarily, inadequate emotional support to the patients is among the issues in the current transitional care results.

Another issue of the current transitional care is inadequate information about the illnesses among the patients. Patients with chronic diseases need detailed information about their conditions. However, in the current transition care, patients have limited knowledge about the conditions. As a result, they are unable to manage the illnesses effectively. Henceforth, there occurs a recurrence of the symptoms that leads to readmission of patients to the hospitals (Clarke et al., 2017). Essentially, the current transitional care is of poor quality since it lacks adequate patient education.

Causes of Poor Quality Transitional Care

Poor communication between the patients and medical practitioners is among the causes of poor quality in the current transitional care. Effective transitional care requires the patients and the medics to communicate efficiently. Efficient communication enables the patients to enquire about any unclear details of their health conditions from the health care providers (Hughes & Witham, 2018). Additionally, effective communication allows medical practitioners to offer adequate information to patients. However, the current transitional care lacks effective communication between the two parties, thus leading to increased rates of patients readmissions. Primarily, the lack of effective communication between medical practitioners and patients plays a significant role in developing the poor quality of transitional care.

Another cause of poor transitional care is reduced access to the vital services among the patients. Transitional care requires patients to access essential care services such as medication and regular checkups (Hughes and Witham). However, in the current transitional care, the vital services are expensive, thus hindering some patients from accessing them. Limited access to the services results in the recurrence of the critical conditions among the patients that leads to readmissions.

Inadequate education to the patient's caregivers at home is another cause of the poor quality of the current transitional care. Upon discharge from the hospitals, patients are subjected to family and relatives that help them to manage the conditions through the provision of the necessary care. Therefore, the nurses should give detailed information to the caregivers about the terms of the patient. Moreover, medical practitioners should provide family caregivers with education on the requirements of the patients, such as nutritional and emotional care (Al-Qahtani, 2017). In case medical personnel fails to give adequate information to the family caregivers, there is a likelihood of readmission of the patient. Ideally, the lack of sufficient details among family caregivers significantly contributes to the occurrence of readmission cases.

Strategies to Improve the Transitional Care

Improvement of the discharge plans in the hospitals is an approach that significantly improves the quality of transitional care. These discharge plans enable the medical practitioners to release the patients while their conditions have stabilized. The plans also allow the medics to determine the right conditions to prescribe for the patients during their discharge periods. Additionally, the discharge plans enable the health care personnel to provide adequate information to the patients as well as to the family caregivers. Ideally, improvement of the discharge plans in the hospitals improves the quality of care given to the patients.

Improvement of communication between the patients and medical practitioners is another way of enhancing the quality of transitional care among the patients. Communication among the patients can be improved through frequent follow up of the patients by the medical practitioners (Mansukhani, Bridgeman, Candelario & Eckert, 2015). The follow up can be enhanced through making calls to the patients to enquire concerning the progress of health conditions among them. This communication enables the health care providers to identify the conditions that may result in readmissions of the patients and attend to them before they erupt.

Implementation of the Strategies

The implementation of the strategies requires an effective plan. The nurses should be subjected to training to improve their communication with the patients. Additionally, the healthcare institutions should enhance their discharge plans to ensure patients are released at the appropriate time. Moreover, organizations should improve their services to provide individuals to access the requirements to manage the conditions.

Conclusion

Transitional care among patients is an essential aspect of the prevention of readmission cases in hospitals. In the current days, the care plans are inadequate and cause the recurrence of patient admission. Improvement of the quality of transitional care is an essential aspect that should be embraced by health care organizations to reduce readmission cases. Primarily, healthcare institutions and personnel should ensure they offer high-quality transitional care to the patients.

References

Al-Qahtani, A. (2017). Rates, Causes, and Reduction of 30-Day Readmissions of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgical Cases. Sage Journals. doi.org/10.1177/2473974X17736267

Clarke, J., Bourn S., Skoufalos, A., Beck, E., & Castillo, D. (2017). An Innovative Approach to Health Care Delivery for Patients with Chronic Conditions. Population Health Management. 20(1). 23-30. doi: 10.1089/pop.2016.0076

Hughes, L., & Witham, M. (2018). Causes and correlates of 30 day and 180-day readmission following discharge from a Medicine for the Elderly Rehabilitation unit. BMC Geriatrics. 18, (197). https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-018-0883-3

Keaver, L., O'Meara, C., Mukhtar, M., & McHugh, C. (2018). Providing Nutrition Care to Patients with Chronic Disease: An Irish Teaching Hospital Healthcare Professional Study. Journal of Biomedical Education. 2018 (1657624). doi.org/10.1155/2018/1657624

Mansukhani, R., Bridgeman, M., Candelario, D.,& Eckert, L. (2015). Exploring Transitional Care: Evidence-Based Strategies for Improving Provider Communication and Reducing Readmissions. Journal for Managed Care and Hospital Formulary Management. 40(10). 690-694. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4606859/