Healthcare has undergone many changes in the last few years. Different approaches to medical treatments, technological advances, and a renewed commitment to empowering patients are some of the trends behind these changes.
These have shown themselves to be more than mere trends, but rather the new norm in healthcare. And as more healthcare professionals and their patients realise the benefits, more future generations will demand them. Join us as we explore patient-centred models in this new era of healthcare.
Concierge Medicine: Personalized Healthcare at Your Fingertips
Healthcare professionals have started to realise that patients’ specific treatment needs, and responses to those treatments, are unique. As a result, the healthcare landscape has become increasingly complex. Concierge Medicine has emerged to meet this demand for more tailored and personal healthcare.
As a patient-centred model, it offers individuals direct access to physicians and more personalized care. But the patients are not the only ones who are reaping the benefits of concierge medicine services.
By limiting their patient loads, concierge doctors can focus on allocating more time to those who need it, customise treatment plans, and teach patients preventive care. All of these developments, especially when experienced together, improve the long-term health outcomes of concierge medicine clients.
Telemedicine: Expanding Access to Care
Telemedicine has revolutionized the way patients interact with their healthcare providers. Although it doesn’t replace more traditional methods, it complements other alternative models like Concierge Medicine.
Together, these patient centred models offering seamless communication, and make virtual visits and follow-ups possible.
This is especially useful for those with busy schedules, or who are temporarily housebound because of caring for an infant. However, the biggest benefit is that it allows people with limited mobility to access healthcare without difficulty.
Conditions that impair or limit mobility such as physical disabilities, leg injuries, arthritis, gout, or foot issues make travel to doctor’s rooms difficult. Telemedicine makes healthcare more accessible for such people and improves their general quality of life.
Home-Based Healthcare: Bringing Care to the Patient
Home-based healthcare focuses on providing healthcare and medical services directly to the patient’s home, rather than requiring them to travel to doctors’ rooms. It also reduces the need for hospital visits for follow-ups and allows patients to convalesce at home.
This new way of offering care is having a profound effect on patients’ health. The prognosis for many conditions, even chronic ones, may improve if patients can manage their symptoms in familiar surroundings.
The comfort experienced by receiving healthcare at home reduces stress, which itself is a major ]r contributing factor to chronic disease. Therefore, being treated in more familiar and less stressful surroundings can lead to more positive outcomes.
Patient Portals: Empowering Patients Through Technology
Technology’s influence is being felt more and more in the modern healthcare sector. But one of the most empowering of these technological advances is also the simplest of them.
Dedicated patient portals offer individuals easier access to their medical records and lab results. It streamlines appointment scheduling or rescheduling. And it also promotes a more transparent and engaging approach to health management.
Other ways in which technology is putting patients in control of their own health and well-being are wearables and connected health monitoring apps. These devices and apps allow patients to be more proactive about their health and immediately be alerted to any issues that need to be checked out.
Collaborative Care: Integrating Multidisciplinary Teams
The collaborative care model encourages teamwork between primary care providers, specialists, and mental health professionals. Their shared patients benefit greatly from this coordinated approach that tackles both their physical and mental health needs.
An example of this type of collaborative care is seen in drug rehab and mental health treatment. Because of the link between mental health issues and drug abuse, a multidisciplinary approach is the most sensible choice. It can also help those in rehabilitation and recovery, and deal with anxiety about relapse.
Collaborative care offers potential benefits to seniors, too. Primary care physicians, nurses, specialists, social workers, and mental health practitioners including those who work as an occupational therapist, often work together to provide suitable care for seniors with behavioural or cognitive problems.
Value-Based Care: Focusing on Outcomes Over Procedures
The value-based care model shifts the focus from the quantity of healthcare services provided to the quality of healthcare offered. This aligns patient outcomes with reimbursement strategies, encouraging healthcare providers to focus on delivering more efficient, and also more effective treatments.
With value-based care, patients are more likely to overcome simple health issues before they can lead to a chronic illness. As a result, they spend far less time in doctors’ rooms and spend a lot less money on expensive, invasive medical treatments.
Value-based care not only improves patients’ health outcomes, but it also optimizes the time and resources of the healthcare workforce. In this way, it provides long-lasting value on multiple levels, to all concerned.