The Hospital to Home Transition Following Acute Stroke

Abstract

Advances in stroke detection and treatment have increased the number of patients discharged home following an index stroke admission. Unfortunately, the science of how to facilitate transition of care (TOC) from hospital to home has not kept pace with decades-long focus on restoring cerebral perfusion. This article examines TOC interventions in stroke populations published after the 2011 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality report. Early supported discharge is the leading TOC intervention. Diversity of outcome measures and use of poorly defined comparators limits generalizability. There is no clear best practice to define interventions targeted at the hospital to home transition.

Keywords: Neuroscience nursing; Patient transfer; Stroke; Transitional care.