The Relay: Episode 8 Now Available

LISTEN NOW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elQZhAJ-6yI

Microtransitions of Care with Ben Cantor

In this episode of The Relay, host Valerie Emmons sits down with Benjamin Cantor, Principal Investigator at the Microtransitions in Care Lab and PhD student at the Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, to talk about a new and important concept in healthcare: microtransitions in care.

These are the short, everyday handoffs that happen when nursing home residents leave for a doctor’s appointment, a trip to CVS, a family outing, or even a room change inside the facility. They may seem minor, but they can carry major risk when communication breaks down.

Val and Ben dig into why these smaller transitions are often overlooked, what gets missed during those handoffs, and how failures in communication can lead to medication errors, missed orders, preventable complications, and worse outcomes for patients.

This conversation also explores how microtransitions fit into the larger transitions of care discussion, why awareness is still lacking, and what providers, families, and facilities can do right now to make these moments safer.

In this episode:

• What “microtransitions in care” actually means

• Why outings, appointments, and room changes can be high-risk moments

• How multiple rapid handoffs increase the chance of error

• Why communication keeps breaking down

• The real-world consequences for nursing home residents

• Tools like the MAS sign-in/sign-out form

• The CAPES framework for safer microtransitions

Link to Microtransitions in Care Lab: https://www.microtransitions.org/

If we keep ignoring the in-between moments, we will keep getting the same outcomes.

The Relay is where we ask what happens at the handoff — because that’s where outcomes are decided.