Continuity of Care
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Continuity of care is defined as the continuation of care of a patient over time by multiple health care providers (Continuity, 2005). Continuum of care is defined as care of a patient over time from preventive medicine to early intervention to acute care, through rehabilitation, from the hospital to the home, and involving community services and medical and social aspects of care (Continuum, 2005). Continuity of care is multidimensional and has been used to describe many different relationships between health care providers and patients such as availability of information and constancy of physician, keeping followup appointments, and the transition of one setting to another, e.g. the hospital to home (Continuity, 2000). The transition from one setting to another is usually referred to as the continuum of care. In the hospital, continuity refers to the coordination of patient care and communication with the person in charge who will have responsibility for the patient throughout their episode of illness. In ambulatory care, continuity refers to whether all the information on the patient - history, tests, medications, visits, etc. - is available to all clinicians who are caring for the patient (Continuity, 2000). Clinical continuity refers to the proportion of visits to a particular physician. In the definition of primary care proposed by a 1996 IOM report, record and clinical continuity were used to explain continuity. Recent nursing literature refers to continuity
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ity, 2000). Continuity within an institution means that all records are kept up-to-date. Clinician continuity is believed to be important because the patient's primary physician knows more about the patient than is in the record and is more likely to recognize changes that others may miss. It also establishes trust with the patient. Continuity also means sharing of information so that everyone involved in the patient's care knows what is happening. This is important in case the primary physician is not available when a problem occurs. Continuity of care has been linked to better preventive care, identification of psychosocial problems, fewer emergency hospitalizations, fewer hospitalizations in general, shorter hospital stays and better compliance with appointments, medication regimens, and more timely attention to problems.
An example of continuum of care can be found in progressive care units which are one step down from critical care units and one step up from general medical-surgical units (Fitzpatrick, 2003). Patients in these units are not sick enough for the ICU but are too sick for the general medical-surgical units because of the different nurse-to-patient ratios. The difference between the two levels of care ca
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American Academy, , Clancy Butler, Mitchell Crittenden, Retrieved Nov, continuity care, Fitzpatrick MA, Butler SM, Services Research, continuum care, health care, RA Fall, retrieved nov, nov 24, 24 2005, nov 24 2005, retrieved nov 24, continuity 2000, References Continuity, health care providers, care providers, care units, care continuity, care providers continuity, usual source care,
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