PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Northern Light AR Gould Hospital is excited to announce a new service for patients in the region. A provider is now offering transitionist care, assuring a smooth transition from being in the hospital to being at home.
“Everyone prefers to be healthy at home rather than being ill in a hospital. We have developed this transitionist program to assist our patients during the crucial time between their leaving the hospital until they can reconnect with their primary care provider. By ensuring that their follow up instructions are clear and removing barriers to care, the transitionist provider improves our overall patient experience during this sometimes difficult and confusing time,” said Jay Reynolds, MD, the hospital’s senior physician executive, about this new service.
Hilary Boucher, PA-C, is the physician assistant who is leading this effort. She will work in collaboration with primary care providers, both in-patient and out-patient care managers, hospitalists, and surgical teams to better serve patients. She will work with this care team to help manage chronic condition patients at high risk for admission or readmission, such as COPD, CHF, pneumonia, sepsis, and more.
“My job is to help patients have a smooth transition home and ensure that preventable reoccurrences of their admission diagnoses are avoided. I work with the hospitalists daily regarding patients preparing for discharge. I introduce myself to these patients in the hospital and see them shortly after discharge for a follow-up appointment. I ensure they receive their acute medications, understand their discharge instructions, and monitor their progress until they can see their primary care provider,” she explained.
Boucher, a Presque Isle native, earned her masters of physician assistant’s studies from Alderson Broaddus University in Philippi, West Virginia. She completed her bachelor of arts in psychology, with minors in biology and chemistry, at Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire. She has completed clinical experiences in emergency medicine, orthopedics, pediatrics, internal medicine, psychiatry, trauma surgery, cardiology, women’s health, and family medicine.
While embedded within the Northern Light Primary Care practice in Presque Isle, her scope of practice stretches beyond that to include the hospital and the home, with a focus on keeping patients healthier and reducing readmissions.
“Patients’ health is significantly improved during their hospitalization, but sometimes they are not fully back to their baseline at the time of discharge. Transitional care helps them heal the rest of the way and ensure that they have everything they need at home to continue to improve and feel better,” she said.
Boucher is only seeing the sickest of patients at this time but hopes to soon expand her services to all patients who are discharged from the hospital so the transition from hospital to home life goes smoothly.
