Improvement of Transition From Hospital to Home for Older Patients in Germany

Overview

The aim of the transsectoral care project TIGER is the reduction of readmission rates of geriatric patients. This aim shall be achieved by improving the hitherto inadequate care process for geriatric patients in the transition from hospital to home. The program offers substantial support of patients and their informal caregivers in the transition process from hospital to home via so called pathfinders, specialized nurses in geriatrics.The pathfinders effectively intertwine stationary and ambulatory care teams caring for a patient, thereby augmenting and complementing effective hospital release management.

Especially for older, chronically ill persons, a hospital stay can promote significant losses in functionality, independence and quality of life, and can increase nutrition deficits and the risk for infections, leading to the occurrence of severe gaps in care after hospital release and to an increased risk for readmission rates. Even if the German government has recognized the necessity of a multiprofessional integrated care program for older, vulnerable patients and has installed a hospital release management program situated in hospitals in 2012, clarifying entitlements to benefits and setting up ambulatory services contacts, this does not yet meet the complex needs of geriatric patients and their informal caregivers. Internationally, the Transitional Care Model (TCM) has been developed (M. Naylor et al. 1994) to address the deficits in care of older patients in transition between hospital to home. Via a series of defined activities, a disruption of the care supply chain for older patients in this transition process is being avoided. The TIGER program will address the needs of geriatric patients and their informal caregivers and will support them via structured continuous activities, on the basis of the TCM, by so called pathfinders, nurses specialized in geriatrics. These pathfinders will develop an individual care plan with the patients, their informal caregivers and the hospital physicians already inside the hospital setting and will then develop and improve this further during up to twelve months after the hospital release of the patient. The pathfinders will coordinate the ambulatory care team services and closely involve the primary physicians. The patients and their informal caregivers will be empowered and educated to achieve a stabilization or improvement in functionality, independence, quality of life, coping with disease, nutritional status and wound healing process of the patients. The aim of the program is that these activities will lead to a reduction of necessary readmission rates of geriatric patients. Efficacy, practicability, and limitations of the program will be evaluated scientifically and economically and will be analyzed for a possible saving of costs for the health care system.