Browsing by Subject "Transitions"

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    Beyond Discharge Summaries: Communication Preferences in Care Transitions Between Hospitalists and Primary Care Providers Using Electronic Medical Records
    (Springer, 2020-06) Munchhof, Amy; Gruber, Rachel; Lane, Kathleen A.; Bo, Na; Rattray, Nicholas A.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: Ineffective transitions of care continue to be a source of risk for patients. Although there has been widespread implementation of electronic medical record (EMR) systems, little is currently known about hospitalists' and primary care providers' (PCPs) direct communication preferences at discharge using messaging capabilities in a shared EMR system. Objective: We examined how hospitalists and PCPs with a shared EMR prefer to directly communicate at the time of hospital discharge by identifying preferred modes, information prioritization, challenges, facilitators, and proposed solutions. Design: A sequential, explanatory mixed methods study with surveys and semi-structured interviews. Participants: Thirty-eight academic hospitalists and 63 PCPs working in outpatient clinics in a single safety net hospital system with a shared EMR. Main approach: Descriptive statistics were used to analyze survey responses. Interviews were analyzed using immersion/crystallization and a mixture of inductive and deductive thematic analysis. Key results: PCPs preferred direct communication at discharge through a message within the EMR while hospitalists preferred a message within the EMR and email. Qualitative results identified key themes related to patient care and direct communication: value of direct communication, safety, social determinants of health, and clinical judgment. Both groups prioritized direct communication for high-risk medications, pending and follow-up studies, and high-risk patients that hospitalists were concerned about. Overall, both hospitalists and PCPs reported that ensuring patient safety, flagging patients with social challenges, and expressing concerns about patients based on clinical judgment were key communication priorities. Conclusions: Hospitalists and primary care providers report considerable overlap in preferences for direct communication at the time of hospital discharge through a shared EMR. Specifically, both groups reported similar concerns regarding patient safety and continuity during transitions. Direct messaging within the EMR could enable "closed loop" communication that helps ensure safe transitions of care for high-risk patients.
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    Patterns of Emergency Department Use Among Long-Stay Nursing Home Residents With Differing Levels of Dementia Severity
    (Elsevier, 2016) LaMantia, Michael A.; Lane, Kathleen A.; Tu, Wanzhu; Carnahan, Jennifer L.; Messina, Frank; Unroe, Kathleen T.; Biostatistics, School of Public Health
    OBJECTIVES: To describe emergency department (ED) utilization among long-stay nursing home residents with different levels of dementia severity. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Public Health System. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 4491 older adults (age 65 years and older) who were long-stay nursing home residents. MEASUREMENTS: Patient demographics, dementia severity, comorbidities, ED visits, ED disposition decisions, and discharge diagnoses. RESULTS: Forty-seven percent of all long-stay nursing home residents experienced at least 1 transfer to the ED over the course of a year. At their first ED transfer, 36.4% of the participants were admitted to the hospital, whereas 63.1% of those who visited the ED were not. The median time to first ED visit for the participants with advanced stage dementia was 258 days, whereas it was 250 days for the participants with early to moderate stage dementia and 202 days for the participants with no dementia (P = .0034). Multivariate proportional hazard modeling showed that age, race, number of comorbidities, number of hospitalizations in the year prior, and do not resuscitate status all significantly influenced participants' time to first ED visit (P < .05 for all). After accounting for these effects, dementia severity (P = .66), years in nursing home before qualification (P = .46), and gender (P = .36) lost their significance. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms high rates of transfer of long-stay nursing home residents, with nearly one-half of the participants experiencing at least 1 ED visit over the course of a year. Although dementia severity is not a predictor of time to ED use in our analyses, other factors that influence ED use are readily identifiable. Nursing home providers should be aware of these factors when developing strategies that meet patient care goals and avoid transfer from the nursing home to the ED.