Coordinated Care

The health field is fully centered around providing the best care for patient's wellbeing. Several steps have been taken to ensure that people get the best services that are available to them regardless of what condition they are dealing with. When it comes to caring for others, health care professionals tend to do all that is possible to meet patients' needs. Often times, there are conditions that require the help of more than one health care professional and services because of the patient's health situation. This is specifically the case when it comes to elderly patients who are dealing with conditions requiring long-term care or multiple medical conditions and might have to depend on others. What bridges the gap when it comes to dealing with that type of situation is something called coordinated care.

What Is Coordinated Care?

Coordinated care is the facilitation of communication between health professionals, health service organizations, patients and even family of the patients in order to ensure that the proper care and service get administered to those patients in need.

Who Is Involved In Coordinating Care

For care coordination, the people involved are the patient, family members of the patient or primary caregiver. Other important individuals involved are the medical professionals who will provide care and treatment plan for the patient. A care coordinator from a health facility or organization is also involved in coordinating care for the patient.

What Are The Duties Of A Care Coordinator?

The care coordinator assesses the patient's condition and communicates with medical staff and other healthcare professionals to determine the best plan for the patient's health care and efficient service. The care coordinators can sometimes be the professional that explains procedure, policies, and services to the patients using the knowledge they have in the field. At times the coordinator provides training to caregivers and staff who will come into direct contact with the patient about relating to the patient, the condition that is being dealt with as well.

Care Coordination Examples

Imagine Jane Doe is paralyzed from hips down and suffers from high blood pressure. Because her family doesn't have the time to care for her in the way that's necessary, they contacted a coordinated care program and were set up with a coordinated care program. The coordinator was able to assign a caregiver to care for Jane Doe and connect her with doctors that will help her to come up with plans that can help her medically. She was then assisted by the caregiver to her annual physical check-up.

The doctor checked all her vitals and drew blood and sent to the facility's lab for testing. The doctor also did an MRI because of the severe headaches that Jane made mention of during her visit. The doctor received the test results through an electronic medical system. Upon analyzing the results that came in through the electronic system, the doctor noticed that Jane's sugar level was remarkably high and went on to prescribe her some medications to help lower the sugar level.

Through the electronic system, the doctor was able to send the prescription to Jane's pharmacy. On her way home, she and the caregiver picked up the medication at the pharmacy it was sent to. She then received notification from the facility that the MRI showed no sign of trouble and was given a referral to speak to a psychotherapist about possible high stress. The next day she called the psychotherapist using the referral and made an appointment.

How Coordinated Care Works

With coordinated care, the patient's needs are determined and a plan is laid out with the care coordinator being the main person to carry out the duty of contacting health care agencies, organizations, health insurance plans, and other professionals to make sure that the services needed by the patient are delivered efficiently.

Care Coordination Model

In the care coordination model, the coordinator starts with setting up a meeting with the patient and family member for the purpose of assessment. Once the coordinator has enough information, medical professionals are contacted to help draw out a plan that will help the patient. The coordinator then continues to contact any other health care providers to ensure that nothing is left out of the plan that was drawn to provide the best service for the patient. After all, is set, the coordinator, continuing with the care coordination model, will engage in follow up visits to check on the patient and whether any adjustments need to be made with the plan.

Why Coordinated Care Is So Important

Coordinated care is important because it allows the patient to receive all the health services needed without having to contact multiple medical professionals.

Benefits Of Care Coordination

Care coordination pretty much leaves no gap for the patient to fill out themselves. It makes the process of being fully cared for seamless and saves time. With the care coordinator contacting all the necessary individuals who are needed for the efficient care of the patient, care coordination decreases the likelihood of further intervention later on. The coordinating care program reduces the cost of healthcare as well. Care coordination delivers excellent patient satisfaction overall.