Improving Communication in Home Care Transitions

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In the health care industry, communication is vitally important, not only in providing specifics about a patient’s condition, but also in detailing the type of care needed after a stay in the hospital. Dr. Christine D. Jones is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado, Denver, where she is the Director of Care Transitions for the Hospital Medicine Group. Over time, Dr. Jones has seen an evolution in the role hospitalists – internal medicine-trained physicians who care for general medical patients in hospitals – play in the care and communication on behalf of patients. Where it was once common for a patient to be given a discharge summary with instructions to follow up with his/her primary care physician, now hospitalists are routinely working to make the follow-up appointments prior to the patient being discharged.