Development of the Socioeconomic Screening, Active Engagement, Follow-up, Education, Discharge Readiness, and Consistency (SAFEDC) Model for Improving Transitions of Care: Participatory Design

Background: Transition to home after hospitalization involves the potential risk of adverse patient events, such as knowledge deficits related to self-care, medication errors, and readmissions. Despite broad organizational efforts to provide better care transitions for patients, there are challenges in implementing interventions that effectively improve care transition outcomes, as evidenced by readmission rates. Collaborative efforts that require health care professionals, patients, and caregivers to work together are necessary to identify gaps associated with transitions of care and generate effective transitional care interventions.

Objective: This study aims to understand the usefulness of participatory design approaches in identifying the design implications of transition of care interventions in health care settings. Through a series of participatory design workshops, we have brought stakeholders of the health care system together. With a shared understanding of care transition and patient experience, we have provided participants with opportunities to generate possible design implications for care transitions.

Methods: We selected field observations in clinical settings and participatory design workshops to develop transitional care interventions that serve each hospital's unique situation and context. Patient journey maps were created and functioned as tools for creating a shared understanding of the discharge process across different stakeholders in the health care environment. The intervention sustainability was also assessed. By applying thematic analysis methods, we analyzed the problem statements and proposed interventions collected from participatory design workshops. The findings showed patterns of major discussion during the workshop.

Results: On the basis of the workshop results, we formalized the transition of care model-the socioeconomic, active engagement, follow-up, education, discharge readiness tool, and consistency (Integrated Michigan Patient-centered Alliance in Care Transitions transition of care model)-which other organizations can apply to improve patient experiences in care transition. This model highlights the most significant themes that should necessarily be considered to improve the transition of care.

Conclusions: Our study presents the benefits of the participatory design approach in defining the challenges associated with transitions of care related to patient discharge and generating sustainable interventions to improve care transitions.