Improving Care Transitions with Shared Accountability and Resident Engagement

​Even when a formal transition-of-care process is not achievable, aging services organizations, particularly through their medical directors, can look to seven principles to implement a sort of care bundle to help promote quality and safety, according to an article in the April 2014 Caring for the Ages. The principles focus on engagement with residents, families, and providers along with structured and clear communication. Any transition program should include a medication management component, including evaluating the resident’s medication regimen at the point of transition, asking the resident to teach-back the regimen to the provider to demonstrate understanding, and reconciling the regimen with prior ones.