Meeting the Transitional Care Needs of Older Adults with COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Older adults with COVID-19 who survive hospitalizations and return to their homes confront substantial health challenges and an unpredictable future. While understanding of the unique needs of COVID-19 survivors is developing, components of the evidence-based Transitional Care Model provide a framework for taking a more immediate, holistic response to caring for these individuals as they moved back into the community. These components include: increasing screening, building trusting relationships, improving patient engagement, promoting collaboration across care teams, undertaking symptom management, increasing family caregiver care/education, coordinating health and social services, and improving care continuity. Evidence generated from rigorous testing of these components reveal the need for federal and state policy solutions to support the following: employment/redeployment of nurses, social workers, and community health workers; training and reimbursement of family caregivers; widespread access to research-based transitional care tools; and coordinated local efforts to address structural barriers to effective transitions. Immediate action on these policy options is necessary to more effectively address the complex issues facing these older adults and their family caregivers who are counting on our care system for essential support.

KEYWORDS:

• Transitional care
• COVID-19
• older adults
• family caregivers

Key points

• Little is known about the needs of older adults with COVID-19 after hospital discharge.

• Components of a transitional care model offer a framework for immediate response.

• Policies targeting training and support of key workforce members are a priority.

• Coordinated local efforts are needed to address barriers to care transitions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.