Safe and effective person- and family-centered care practices during transitions from hospital to home—A web-based Delphi technique

BACKGROUND: Research has shown that adverse events during care transitions from hospital to home can have a significant impact on patients’ outcomes, leading to readmission, delayed healing or even death. Gaps exist in the ways of monitoring care during transition periods and there is a need to help organizations better implement and monitor safe person-and family-centered care. Value statements are a way to obtain narratives in lay terms about how well care, treatment and support is organized to meet the needs and preferences of patients/families. The purpose of this study was to identify the value statements that are perceived by decision-makers and patients/families to best signify safe person- and family-centered care during transitions from hospital to home. METHODS: Between January and September 2017, a web-based Delphi was used to survey key stakeholders in acute care and home care organizations across Canada. RESULTS: Decision-makers (n = 22) and patients/families (n = 24) from five provinces participated in the Delphi. Following Round 1, 45 perceived value statements were identified. In Round 2, consensus was received on 33/45 (73.3%) by decision-makers, and 30/45 (66.7%) by patients/families. In Round 3, additional value statements reached consensus in the decision-makers’ survey (3) and in the patients/families’ survey (2). A total of 30 high priority value statements achieved consensus derived from both the decision-makers’ and patients/families’ perspectives. CONCLUSION: This study was an important first step in identifying key consensus-based priority value statements for monitoring care transitions from the perspective of both decision-makers and patients/families. Future research is needed to test their usability and to determine whether these value statements are actually suggestive of safe person-and family-centered care transition interventions from hospital to home.