Question

As a member of your unit’s practice counsel, you are asked to work on strategies to reduce the hospital’s 30-day readmission rate for heart failure.

Using the material in the required reading, address the following:

1. List the most important topics to cover during discharge teaching.
2. Compare the options for transitional care – home care referral, referral to a heart failure clinic, and telemonitoring. How would you help the client and family decide which option is best for them?

Answer 1

# The most important topics to be covered during discharge teaching are :-

- importance of compliance to medicines

- teaching self care at home

- monitoring of complications

- regular follow up appointments

- teaching the patient about the warning signs ,when to reach the physician .

# The patient can be advised to use transitional care like home care ,referral to heart failure clinic ,telemonitoring if they can't reach the hospital suddenly and take the treatment there or according to the advise given inby telemedicine .. Once the patient is clinically stable, patient can come to the hospital and have a appointment with the Physician .

# The best option is coming to the treating doctor . But in some circumstances like the patient can't reach the hospital suddenly due to distance issue, travel time etc then the patient should go to the near by referral center's to the treatment because getting the treatment is better than doing nothing by wasting time Physicians also encourage to get treated for small ,and sudden discomforts nearby itself because timely action is necessary to be taken for preventing the complications or to avoid adverse effects which are life threatening .