Key Elements Needed for Ensuring High-Quality Transitional Care - Essay Example

Transitional Care Plan

Introduction

A transitional care plan is a critical approach that shows how the patient will be transferred from one health setting to another. The primary purpose of the transitional care plan is to ensure that quality care s delivered to the patient. Proper communication is one of the key elements that will lead to appropriate transfer. Mrs. Snyder is a patient who will be addressed in this paper as the patient will suppose to be transferred from the hospital to the hospice facility for her end-of-life care.

Key Elements and Information Needed for Ensuring High-Quality Transitional Care

• The destination caregiver should be provided with proper patient information (Naylor et al., 2018). It is vital to give the patient and her caregiver the patient information that they can relay too and also true information.
• Patient education. The case manager needs to educate the patient about healthcare (Naylor et al., 2018). Patients must know the basic knowledge of care that will help them manage their condition like self-responsibility and lifestyle choices.
• Community support. It is essential o access the support the community can offer the patient this includes; transport availability, health literacy, and outpatient care (Naylor et al., 2018). The importance of accessing community support is to improve care delivery that will reduce readmission and deaths.
• Ensure continuity care; the case manager has a vital role in ensuring that the patient is getting quality care timely (Naylor et al., 2018). Patient care includes treatment and the information the patient should get to help the patient improve the experience.

To transition Mrs. Snyder, the following information is needed; test results, a list of discharge medications, hospitalization course, patient counseling records, follow-up plans, information of security and insurance, medical history, measures of the advanced safety risk, and detailed treatment and medication records for medical conditions (Naylor et al., 2018).

Importance of critical elements of a transitional care plan

• Patient information is provided to the caregiver; it is vital to give the destination caregiver with reliable, adequate, and accurate patient information to avid medial errors. According to Holland et al. (2017) discovered that the leading cause of medical errors is poor communication. Therefore, to avoid medical errors, the patient's caregiver should have all the patient's information.
• Patient education is vital as it improves the patient experience (Holland et al., 2017). It has been discovered that when the patient has the experience, they get to care better for themselves. Patient education promotes proper care delivery. In this case, patient education will help the patient follow instructions after discharge, reducing the chances of readmission.
• It is vital to know the resources the community can provide to help the caregivers see the patient's situation and make plans on how to utilize the available resources (Holland et al., 2017). It has been discovered that readmission can be caused by poor use of community resources and also inaccessibility of the community resources.
• Timely care is essential is transitional care; this is because it improves trust from the healthcare organization (Holland et al., 2017). Patients, when they get continuum care, they get motivated, and this way, the patient will collaborate with the caregiver, and this way, the patient outcome will be achieved.

Potential Effects of Incomplete or Inaccurate Information on Care

During the transfer, patient information is essential; this is because it helps the caregivers to understand the patient's needs (Bowman, 2015). Inaccurate patient information impacts treatment; when healthcare providers are not aware of the patient information due to incomplete information, it might take time for the caregivers to begin treatment to the patient. Lack of proper patient information forces healthcare providers to collect the data from scratch, and this can lead to the wrong diagnosis. Delay in medical treatment will lead to advance medical errors, and this can cause deaths. Lastly, incomplete or inaccurate information care during transfer can lead to wrong medication (Bowman, 2015). It is essential to follow the medications the patient has been using; this helps to have effective care that will lead to patient outcomes. Lack of information on the patient's medicines makes it hard for the caregivers to know what to give the patient; thus, this might lead to medical errors.

Importance of Effective Communication

Communication is essential; this is because it improves care delivery (O'Hagan et al., 2014). Patient information, when communicated well, it reduces medical errors, and this way, it enhances care delivery that will lead to improving the patient outcome. Effective communication fosters trust between the caregiver and the patient; this way, the relationship between the two becomes better, resulting in transparency.

Potential Effects of Ineffective Communications

The potential effect of ineffective communication is the delay in admission (Song et al., 2018). Patients who are transferred without proper information are lost when trying to get the right information. Delay in admission may cause advanced issues like deaths. Another potential effect o ineffective communication is it might cost the patient more funds. Due to a lack of communication, the patient, for example, will be forced to undergo lab tests that the patient might have done. Ineffective communication can force healthcare providers to conduct procedures that might have been done in the initial healthcare facility, and this way, treatment might be delayed due to data collection.

Barriers to the Transfer of Accurate Patient Information

The potential barriers to the transfer of accurate patient information are poor recording (Bayley et al., 2015). Poor recording has been an issue in most healthcare organizations. Poor recording in healthcare is recording inaccurate information or incomplete information of a patient. Poor recorded information will lead to poor information transfer; when the patient information is not well kept, it can be hard to transfer all the information because some information might be missing during transfer. Another barrier to the transfer of accurate patient information is the lack of support from the family (Bayley et al., 2015). The patient who lacks support from the family-like Mrs. Snyder is that the patient might not remember to have all the information they require, and due to this, they end up missing some information during transfer. Lack of the family support will lead the patient to make choices that might not be effective also lack of support from the family will lead t lack of patient information that will affect transfer of the patient. Lastly, lack of patient education, a patient who knows how to take care of one can understand what is required thus will have all the records (Bayley et al., 2015). The patient who lacks patient education finds it hard to have all the information they require, and due to this during transfer, some information will be missing. Lack of patient education will affect the transfer of the patient because with lack of education the patient will not know what is expected of her and this way she cannot support in giving accurate information that will effectively enable her accurate transfer.

Strategies to Ensure that the Destination Care Provider has an Accurate Understanding of Continued Care

According to O’Mahonyet al. (2017), the Strategies to ensure that the Destination Care Provider has an Accurate Understanding of Continued Care are; One, developing a well-detailed discharge plan should be prepared on time the patient will be discharged, and the care the patient will require after the discharge. It is important to have a well detailed plan as this will help the caregiver to have a protocol top follow that will help the patient during her care and also it will help the caregiver to deliver quality care

Second, ensure that the patient is aware of how to take medications. It is essential to show how the patient should take the dedications because this will help the patient follow the instructions from the hospital to avoid readmission. Patient experience is important this is because it helps the patient to take care of herself and this way she will be supporting in care thus making the outcome effective.

Conclusion

In summary, the transitional plan is essential; this is because it helps to make a successful patient transfer. Communication during transfer is critical; this is because it helps healthcare providers to deliver quality care. It is vital to ensure that the transitional care plan is well organized, as this will help to eliminate medical errors. The case of Mrs. Snyder has been used in this paper as a reference in her end of life hospital care.