Could you define continuum of care in a health care setting?

Answer 1

Full Continuum of Care in a health care setting includes: Independent Living, Assisted Living, Skilled Nursing Care, Alzheimer's Care, and Rehabilitation.

The continuum of care refers to the range of services available within the health care sector, and to some extent, outside it, available address health and wellness needs. The term suggests a concept of an increasing intensity of care rather than a specific and unvarying list of services. Frail elders might entire the continuum of care by enlisting the services of a home health agency, then progress to assisted living, then enter a skilled nursing facility as their health challenges escalate. The arrangement of preventative public health services, primary care outpatient clinics, local general hospitals, and regional hospitals with intensive and specialty care units, is another array of the continuum of care. Theoretically, consumers enter care at the lowest level capable of addressing their problem, and advance to higher levels only as their problems become more complex and demanding. Because of the constraints of financial access to care, profit seeking by providers of care, lack of information to assist consumers make best choices, geographic and cultural barriers, and other factors, the continuum of care is a theoretical model rather than an actual system of care delivery.