Towards Patient Safety: Evaluation of Care Transitions Training Needs Among Key Providers Involved in Patient Care Transitions

Significant morbidity, mortality, and increased healthcare costs of up to 20.1 billion dollars annually occur as a result of poorly executed patient care transitions. The critical role of providers in ensuring patient safety at discharge requires provider knowledge of required care transitions processes to ensure optimal execution of transitions of care. The present study was designed to determine provider perception of their care transitions training, curriculum content, and self-identified care transitions knowledge gaps. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among key healthcare providers at the Grady Memorial Hospital, a 953 bed urban safety net hospital. Of these, 131 participants completed the surveys including 73 internal medicine residents, 51 nurses, and 7 social workers. Among participants, 13% reported that they had never had any formal training on care transitions. Of these, 88.2% were medical residents, while 11.8% were bedside nurses. Among participants who had received care transitions training, only 40% received their training prior to graduation. Healthcare providers across disciplines were least exposed to training on discharge settings of care, determining the most appropriate next level of care for patients at discharge, and communication and coordination with post-acute care facilities. Providers made recommendations regarding topics they considered important to be included in care transitions training. Defining the full discharge process and responsibilities of various healthcare providers were topics recommended by most providers as important to be included in care transitions training. This study has highlighted the extent of exposure to formal care transitions training among providers from multiple disciplines involved in various aspects of discharge care. It has demonstrated a paucity of formal care transitions training at the health professional school level. It has also highlighted self-identified care transitions training needs and will form a foundation for design of care transitions curricula for a broad range of healthcare professionals.