Nearly 38% of ostomy patients return to the emergency room or are readmitted within 90 days of surgery — one of the highest readmission rates of any surgical population, driven largely by dehydration and preventable skin complications.
Most of this is avoidable. The problem isn't the patient's condition — it's a shortage of Wound, Ostomy, and Continence (WOC) nurses and a lack of continuity between the hospital team that trained the patient and the home health team that takes over.
Synchronize Health's Specialized Ostomy Aftercare Program (S.O.A.P.) closes that gap. Certified ostomy care nurses, registered dietitians, and physical therapists bridge hospital and home health care directly — reviewing stoma photos to catch skin problems before they become an ER visit, guiding new ostomates through the significant dietary changes their surgery requires, and supporting a structured exercise regimen to reduce the risk of parastomal hernia, which reaches 33–44% within a year and up to 50% by seven years without proper management.
Key program components include structured collection and transmission of patient health-indicator data to the care team, telemedicine consultations coordinated between the patient and treating physician, and stoma image documentation transmitted to the care team for physician review — infrastructure that supports the treating physician in maintaining structured oversight of peristomal and systemic patient data as part of a coordinated post-operative care plan.
For the first three to six months after surgery — or longer if directed by the physician — patients have continuous access to their care team by phone, text, or email, with full integration into the ordering physician's EMR.
Patients supported through the hardest part of adjusting to life with an ostomy. Physicians and health systems who avoid the readmissions that define this population today.