The Care Transitions Intervention

This intervention tests whether encouraging older patients and their caregivers to assert a more active role in their care transitions could improve clinical outcomes. Patients are supported by a nurse transition coach and specific tools, including a Personal Health Record.

See above.

Inclusion Criteria:

• To be eligible for this study, patients from the participating delivery system had to: 1) be age 65 years or older, 2) be admitted to one of the participating delivery system's contract hospitals during the study period for a non-psychiatrically-related condition, 3) be community-dwelling (i.e., not from a long-term care facility), 4) reside within a predefined geographic radius of the hospital (thereby making a home visit feasible), 5) have a working telephone, 6) be English-speaking, 7) show no documentation of dementia in the medical record, 8) have no plans to enter hospice, 9) not be participating in another research protocol, and 10) have documented in their medical record at least one of 11 diagnoses, including stroke, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, cardiac arrhythmias, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, spinal stenosis, hip fracture, peripheral vascular disease, deep venous thrombosis, or pulmonary embolism.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Those who did not meet the inclusion criteria.