Care coordination is a vital part of aging well if your aim is to age at home. Care coordination involves deliberately planning and organizing your future care so that information and procedures can be seamlessly shared throughout your care network. This makes it safer and easier to receive care and keeps those closest to you abreast of health changes or challenges. This means that your needs and preferences for care are known ahead of time and communicated to the right people to be used for effective care. But those are just the broad strokes, care coordination is much more detailed than that.
What is Care Coordination?
To elaborate, care coordination is the hiring of a specialized professional to synchronize the delivery of sensitive patient information to healthcare providers. The ultimate goal of coordinating this information is to improve health outcomes so that care from a variety of providers is not broken. Meaning that all providers are kept up to date on your wishes for treatment at all stages of care. This can not only improve the care provided but also reduce the chance of redundancies in tests and procedures.
Additionally, they can also help you navigate complex healthcare systems like Medicare, Long term Care Insurance, and Medicaid. This helps to alleviate stress and reduce the chance of making errors. There are four essential aspects of care coordination and they include:
- Easy access to healthcare services and providers
- Efficient communication and effective care plans for multiple providers
- A professional focus on your overall health needs
- Clarifying medical information so you can understand your needs better
A Better Approach for Aging in Place
There are primarily two ways to receive care coordination; using a broad approach to improve healthcare delivery, and using specified care coordination. Examples of the broad approach may include:
- Teamwork
- Care management
- Medication management
- Health information management
Examples of specified care coordination includes:
- Incorporating wellness navigation to keep you healthy and well.
- Adding preventive activities and resources to your daily routine to keep you independent and aging in place
- Establishing who will be responsible for specific care needs
- Sharing and communicating information
- Assisting with care transitions from one healthcare professional to another
- Creating a proactive care plan to help you age in place
- Monitoring of your care needs
- Supporting your health goals
- Connecting to community resources
- Dedication to aligning resources with care needs
Benefits of Care Coordination and Why Care Coordination is Important
As identified by the Institute of Medicine, care coordination is key in improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and safety of the American healthcare system. Well thought out coordination delivered to the right people improves results for everyone including payers, providers, and patients.
Redefining what good care looks like is beneficial for the following reasons:
- The current American healthcare system is disjointed and processes for analyzing care can vary between primary doctors and specialists
- Individuals are often unsure as to why they are being referred to a specialist, how to make appointments, and what to do after seeing said specialist
- Specialists don’t always receive clear reasons for referrals and primary doctors don’t always receive adequate information regarding what the specialist may have found
- At Confident Living you will always have your primary care coordinator who maintains loyalty to you, not your insurance company
- At Confident Living, you will always be able to contact your coordinator, rather than having to call a hotline
- And at Confident Living, your care coordinator knows you personally so you won’t have to constantly repeat information to receive proper care
The Importance of the Personal Touch
With Confident Living, you will always have a primary care coordinator who knows you and your needs personally. The goal of Confident Living is to help you age where you want, at home. This requires we know your personal challenges and desires for the future. Though you may receive care coordination through an insurance provider or primary care physician, they do not have the same long-term goals in place.
A care coordinator that works for your doctor is primarily concerned with helping your doctor. At Confident Living, we focus on you and your goals to age in place.
Don’t let the future catch you off guard and start planning today with this FREE eBook, Plan the Future for You and Your Spouse’s Long-Term Care.
Confident Living is a continuing care at home membership program, focused on helping you remain active and independent as you age in your own home. We serve the greater Cincinnati area. For more information, contact us online or call (513) 719-3522.