Care Transitions Coaching
What is coaching?
The goal of the coaching intervention (CTI) is to improve care transitions by providing patients and primary care givers with tools, support, and to promote knowledge and self management as they journey through all transitions, states Dr. Eric Coleman, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Science Center.
The purpose of a care transition coach is to bridge the gaps that exist in the present health care system as patients journey from one setting to another. Coaches assist patients with chronic illness who often require care from multiple settings and often find the systems failed them due to a lack of care coordination and fragmentation of communication between those settings. A care transition occurs anytime a patient moves from one health care setting to another.
What coaching is not
Not only is it important to understand what the coach role is, understanding what it is not is equally important. In contrast to case management CTI coaches support a self management model and they are not direct hands on caregivers, clinical manager or teachers. They do not "do" for the patient nor do they develop the agenda. Their role is to listen to the patient and support them in meeting their self stated goals. The coach serves as a guide for tasks but does not "take charge."