Transitional Care in Times of COVID 19: Opportunities for e-Health Interventions

Abstract

People admitted to hospitals are vulnerable to experiencing care continuity loss when there are alterations in their health condition or when they are transferred between care institutions. This is a challenge for health systems to guarantee the execution of a set of actions whose objective is ensuring care continuity between different care levels. This studied aimed to understand the influence of the current pandemic on the continuity of care between the hospital and the community. The participants were five nurses, who gave free and informed consent to participate. Content analysis was the technique used in data analysis. Data anonymity and confidentiality were ensured, and the data was coded without identifying customers and their families. An ethic commission authorized the study. The findings shows that transitional care has become a missing care during the pandemic, due to the need to reorganize the services and teams to provide care to the COVID patients and by the limitations of visits to hospitalized elderly. Professionals note that not only the discharge preparation and caregiver training were affected, but also communication with primary health care became more difficult, with clear defragmentation in the transitional care. In the professionals’ discourse, the need to rethink ways of ensuring continuity of care emerges, with e-health interventions being seen as an opportunity to ensure the safety of the elderly and their caregivers, the articulation with colleagues in primary health care and continuity of rehabilitation care. Despite the limitations of the study, several recommendations for the clinic and investigation emerge.