3 Tips for Supporting Care Transitions During the Holidays

A 2023 poll from the American Psychiatric Association revealed that 31% more Americans expect to be more stressed during the holiday season this year than last year. Being hospitalized during that time can lead to more intense feelings of stress and anxiety.

Patients report feeling isolated during hospitalizations and even more so during the holidays. Feelings of being left out of traditions or family fun can lead to increasing reports of isolation and sadness, especially if faced with additional care needs post discharge. Providing extra support when planning for care transitions during that time can help alleviate some of those stressors.

Here are 3 practical tips to support care transitions during the upcoming holiday season.

1.???? Lean into your empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and appreciate a situation from another’s perspective, and as care providers empathy likely comes naturally, but the holidays can be stressful for everyone. Take a breath and prepare to lean in on your empathy trait. With the heightened stress of the holiday season, you may find yourself pausing more often.

2.???? Plan further ahead. Feedback from patient experience about the discharge process is that it is rushed and feels chaotic. Often plans change over the course of a hospital stay and sometimes the end result is that patients aren’t prepared to make decisions. Anticipating needs and planning for them early on can help patients prepare better and make decisions about their own care. To mitigate feelings of anxiety, you might consider providing anticipatory guidance such as planning as soon as a patient is admitted and providing information as soon as possible to allow patients enough time to process.

3.???? Empower patient decision making. Patients who participate in the decision-making process when choosing care report higher satisfaction and engagement with care. One option is to use the AIDA Patient Choice feature to generate a list of post-acute care services that you can filter by the right care, service type, or location. Its real-time access to the latest highest-rated service providers based on CMS ratings makes it easy to provide high-quality choices to your patients.

One additional tip, please remember to take care of yourself during the holiday season. Your health and well-being matters, too. Have any other tips? Please share them in the comments.

#patientexperience #healthcaremanagement #caretransitions #empathy