What is a potential outcome of not ensuring continuity of care?

Ensuring continuity of care is crucial in healthcare as it ties together various treatments and interactions a patient has with different healthcare providers over time. When continuity of care is not maintained, patients can experience fragmented services, which often leads to increased risk of medication errors. This happens for several reasons: information may not be transferred effectively between different providers, medications may be duplicated or contraindicated due to lack of communication, and the overall treatment plan may become disorganized.

When a patient moves from one healthcare setting to another without proper transfer of their medication history and treatment plan, the likelihood of adverse events rises. Providers may not have access to complete information regarding a patient’s medications, leading to mistakes like prescribing a drug that interacts negatively with another medication the patient is already taking or overlooking allergies the patient has.

In contrast, options that suggest improved patient satisfaction, enhanced communication among healthcare providers, or greater patient independence do not reflect the realities of care fragmentation. In fact, the opposite outcomes typically occur in the absence of continuity of care.