What? Why? Where? And Who Cares about Care Coordination?

Why? We live in such fast-paced environment, especially when we are talking about healthcare.  Medscape, which is owned by WebMD, recently released its 2016 Physician Compensation Report, which features data from more than 19,000 doctors in 26 specialties. According to that report, the majority of doctors spend between 13-16 minutes with each patient. The same report underlines that the same doctors spend more time on paperwork – 10-14 hours per week, and that time keeps on growing, squeezing the time spend with patients. One would argue that with so much time spent on documentation, the care coordination should be superb. Sadly, this is not the case, did you know that the THIRD leading cause of death in the USA is a medical error? Medical error is defined by John’s Hopkins Dr. Makary and Dr. Daniel as not only lapses in judgment and skills but lack of coordination of care among other things.

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What?  According to the Agency for HealthCare Research and Quality  “Care coordination involves deliberately organizing patient care activities and sharing information among all of the participants concerned with a patient’s care to achieve safer and more effective care. This means that the patient’s needs and preferences are known ahead of time and communicated at the right time to the right people, and that this information is used to provide safe, appropriate, and effective care to the patient.”
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Where? Care Coordination

Where?  Coordination of care  must occur everywhere. This is not just a primary care provider or the hospital job, the lion share of the task must belong to the patient. Yes, You…. You need to take control of your health and your health care system. Do you make a list of needed items before you go shopping? Most people do it so they won’t forget to buy a specific item. As a patient, your approach should be the same. You should have a list of questions you want to ask your provider, the list of your medications, the lab results and the names of your specialist. Some people say that your primary care provider is your quarterback, I disagree.  You and only you should be the quarterback of your care . Your doctors, insurance company, pharmacy can all change, the only constant in that equation is You. I want to empower you to take control of your health and become the quarterback of your game. In the game of health care, your doctors should be your coaches, you should listen to them, trust
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