Transitions of care for older adults discharged home from the emergency department: an inductive thematic content analysis of patient comments

Improving care transitions for older adults can reduce emergency department (ED) visits, adverse events, and empower community autonomy. We conducted an inductive qualitative content analysis to identify themes emerging from comments to better understand ED care transitions. The LEARNING WISDOM prospective longitudinal observational cohort includes older adults (≥ 65 years) who experienced a care transition after an ED visit from both before and during COVID-19. Their comments on this transition were collected via phone interview and transcribed. We conducted an inductive qualitative content analysis with randomly selected comments until saturation. Themes that arose from comments were coded and organized into frequencies and proportions. We followed the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR). Comments from 690 patients (339 pre-COVID, 351 during COVID) composed of 351 women (50.9