Supporting Transitions of Care: Where ADTs Fall Short

Welcome to the second article in our transitions of care series. In our previous post, we explored the importance of optimizing transitions of care. Here, we’ll dive into:

• What hospital admission, discharge and transfer (ADT) data feeds are
• Where they fall short in supporting effective transitional care interventions
• What care teams actually need in order to improve care transitions

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What Are ADTs, and What Do They Offer?

Recognizing the importance of optimizing transitions of care is only half the battle. The real challenge lies in giving care teams the timely, actionable information they need to respond quickly and effectively during these critical events.

One of the most widely used tools for supporting transitions of care are ADTs, or Admission, Discharge and Transfer data feeds. These feeds provide real-time notifications via direct integrations with individual healthcare facilities or by connecting to statewide health information exchanges (HIEs).

ADT alerts are triggered by patient encounters at those specific facilities and typically include basic information, such as patient demographics, event details and, in some cases, the reason for a visit or diagnosis.

In turn, ADT alerts often trigger care coordination workflows such as post-discharge follow up, medication reconciliation and referral support. While useful, ADTs alone are not sufficient for empowering care teams to optimize transitions of care.

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Why ADTs Don’t Suffice

Inconsistent Coverage

Whether providers receive ADTs through individual hospital integrations, HIEs, or aggregators that bundle feeds at local or regional levels, the result is often a patchwork network that covers only a portion of hospitals in most states.

To address blind spots and expand coverage, organizations frequently purchase multiple ADT feeds, each requiring a separate contract, and incurring separate implementation and ongoing maintenance fees.

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Poor Data Standardization
Additionally, ADT customers must reconcile and normalize data formats. Because the data received differs widely by source, the information can be inconsistent and incomplete. This variability creates workflow friction and reduces alert usability and trust.

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Incomplete Clinical Depth and Context
ADT notifications may confirm that a patient was admitted or discharged from the hospital, but they are largely transactional and momentary in nature. They don’t often capture discharge summaries, procedures, lab values, vitals or medication lists — all of which are crucial for supporting patients and caregivers during transitions of care. 

They also lack the comprehensive, longitudinal patient history necessary for clinical decision-making at meaningful moments along the patient journey. 

The result? Care teams are often left scrambling to find these details by making phone calls, pouring over lengthy faxed records and reconciling information from multiple sources. This process introduces delays that compromise continuity of care — and wastes hours per week per care team member.

Unfortunately, this has become the accepted standard for transitions of care across the healthcare industry. But new technology solutions are poised to disrupt the status quo. 

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How Signal Alerts from Particle Health Can Help

ADT feeds were an important first step in giving care teams visibility into patient movement across care settings but comprehensive care coordination demands more. 

Particle Health’s Signal offering is designed to address the limitations of ADTs. By drawing on nationwide HIEs, Signal detects patient events across 90% of CMS hospitals, dramatically expanding coverage via a single connection.

Signal alerts provide near-real-time notifications enriched with clinical context, fueling timely, effective interventions that improve transitions of care and patient outcomes.

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Long Story Short

Transitions of care are complex and high-stakes. ADTs alone cannot carry that weight. For care teams to succeed, the industry must move beyond event notifications and invest in data infrastructure that is clinically meaningful, longitudinally informed and enhances everyday workflows.

Next-generation transitional care is not only about tracking patient movement — it’s about reducing costs, improving quality and delivering better outcomes. Read the final installment in this series to learn more about how Particle Health is reimagining care team support for transitions of care.