Transitioning from facility care to home

Posted: 4/2/2013 4:22 PM by Interim HealthCare
After a hospital or rehabilitation facility stay, all you may be thinking about is returning to the comfort of your own home. But even after leaving these facilities, your recovery is still ongoing.
 
One of the keys to making this transition a successful one is communication. By effectively sharing information between doctors, nurses and other heath care providers with the patient and his/her family, dangerous and possibly life-threatening situations can be avoided.
 
By being prepared, baby boomers transitioning from a facility to home can ensure that all goes smoothly. Interim HealthCare offers a program, InterimTransitions℠, which can assist in this preparation. The service offers patients and their families assistance, such as:
Knowing what home care services are available to them after they return home
Helping with prescription changes and dosages at home
Understanding the signs and symptoms of their condition to know if they are improving or not
Assisting with future physician visits
 
Chronic conditions and diseases, including heart failure (HF), diabetes, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) or Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) all can impact the transition from a facility to home. Since one in four people over the age of 65 have at least one chronic disease, this is a big concern. The InterimTransitions program includes services that can help, from “Living with HF, Diabetes, CAD or COPD” programs to other forms of personal care or nursing support that focus on reducing readmissions to hospitals and other facilities.
 
Even at home, the patient is still recovering. To keep them improving, it is essential to be organized and aware as they begin a new routine on a path to better health.