Getting on with living life: experiences of older adults after home care.

Providers in all settings are increasingly aware of the need to focus on transitional care needs and services across healthcare settings to improve quality of life, maintain optimal health, and prevent unnecessary hospitalizations. Home care is an essential piece of the transitional care puzzle, especially in providing services to support older adults with chronic comorbid conditions to remain at home safely with optimal health and psychosocial well-being. Home care is essential in bridging the gap from acute hospital care to home; however, little is known about the needs of older adults after discharge from home care.

Developing a personal health record for community-dwelling older adults and clinicians: technology and content.

To empower older consumers and improve health outcomes, a consumer-friendly personal health record (PHR) is needed. The purpose of this article was to evaluate PHR technology and content for older community-dwelling consumers. Specific aims were to: (a) develop a secure, web-based application for a PHR to enable interoperable exchanges of data between consumers and clinicians; (b) develop structured, evidence-based shared care plan content for the PHR using an interface terminology standard; and (c) validate the shared care plans with consumers.