In: Nursing
Why is discharge and transitional care significant and potentially problematic for older adults living with chronic health conditions?
In today's world, older adults living with chronic health conditions are at very high risk of mortality. They often face complicated sickness, mental breakdown, stress and vulnerability to infection which further increases the chances of a bad result. In such conditions, what they really need is continuous advance healthcare treatment as well as support from their closed ones. That's where properly planned discharge and transitional care plays a significant role in ensuring patient's safety in transferring from one platform of care to another. These kinds of plans are also effective in terms of cost since chronic health problems in older people takes a lot of time to get cured and spending that much time in a hospital setting can be very expensive and sometimes unaffordable. Ideas like “Transitional Care Nurse” have been found very successful in ensuring ''The Transitional Care Model''.
But it's just not as easy it sounds and this model can be adversely risky at times. During transitional period, older patients can barely manage themselves and needs consistent monitoring. A long time in hospital make them use to those settings and they face a really difficult time in managing life after discharge at home. If the process of transition is not taken care properly, there are high risk of readmission and the condition can be worsened over time.