The healthcare industry is one of the most important, well-meaning industries in the United States. Despite the fact that healthcare is big business, it is also filled with caring professionals who enter their fields to make a positive impact in the lives of patients. None of these professionals go to work each day thinking of their patients as “customers,” but as people who need a very sensitive form of service.
Institutions like North shore hospital are now striving to provide what is called “comprehensive” care, and this includes implementing the use of many different technologies to help patients be more connected and aware of their own health and healthcare plans. While it’s still in its relative infancy, comprehensive care connects all of a patient’s providers together so that they can more closely coordinate care and give patients a more stable plan.
There are many different specialties of medicine and all of them have become much more active in the past decade than just family care providers. Typically, family care providers often serve as a first line of defense against disease and conditions, but they are far from the end of the line. Different specialists need to be able to see the other specialists who also see their patients. For example, you have a family health provider who refers you to 3 different specialists. By closely connecting these three specialists, they’re able to get a clearer, overall picture of the patient’s health.
This can also keep a patient from being prescribed medications that are going to overlap and cause interactions. Pharmacies can sometimes catch a physician error, but it’s always wise to have a very connected team of physicians who know exactly what medications the patient is on so that they don’t prescribe something that can cause an interaction.
Hospitals like North shore are leading the way for this kind of comprehensive and connected care. Only time will tell whether or not this becomes the model for institutions across the country, but for now places like this are forming an impressive new model of healthcare that is helping professionals give patients the caring and sensitive treatment they deserve in healthcare settings. No patient should feel like their doctors don’t know enough about their particular health situation. Thanks to technology, many institutions are able to link together and give patients comprehensive care across all doctors.