This Month's Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health Virtual Lecture Series Looks at the Hospital to Home Transition

by Bob Montgomery

The topic for this month's Virtual Lecture hosted by the Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health is the Hospital to Home transition.

The guest speaker is Doctor Mary Fox. She says there's not much doubt most seniors dealing with health issues would rather be at home than in a hospital. They're most comfortable in their home where they're familiar with their surroundings and they know where everything is. She says in some cases, the biggest challenge when a senior is being moved back home from the hospital is for the other members of the family. Doctor Fox says what they've told her is that they often have to take on the role of a nurse and they don't have the training to do that.

She adds, another problem for some people in rural communities is the distance to a hospital. In some of her studies people had to use a helicopter to get to the hospital so it was critical for members of those families to know what they had to do to help their family member recover because they can't get to a hospital right away. The stay in a hospital can also be very difficult for the patient if it's the result of a sudden illness, rather than a visit that was planned. Fox says in cases where someone suddenly had to go to a hospital and maybe there wasn't a room for them or even a bed for them and they have to sleep in a chair, they often feel exhausted by the time they got home after a stay of two or three days.

Doctor Fox says another challenge for seniors that have to spend more than a few days in the hospital and have some cognitive issues is they can get out of their normal routine. They don't bother getting dressed or even getting out of bed and she says seniors in that situation have the highest rate of re-admission to the hospital. That's where families can play a big role in getting them back into their normal routine.

The Virtual Lecture is on Tuesday April 9th from noon until one and there's a link to join the lecture on the Gateway website.