Care coordination trends

Care coordination trends August 29, 2017

Care coordination is a hot topic in healthcare right now. The move toward more coordinated care will help reduce costs and will result in higher quality care for the patient. What are some of the ways physicians are improving care coordination in primary care practices?

The first thing a primary care physician needs to do is to communicate with other providers who are also treating the patient. Particularly for patients with chronic or complex illnesses, a number of specialty providers may be involved in the care plan. Care coordination in primary care involves an understanding of the procedures, medications, lab tests, and care plans ordered by the other providers.

Care coordination should also involve the patient, to be sure the patient knows which medications to take when and which doctor to contact for each medical concern. Primary care physicians should encourage their patients to connect with them directly for questions or clarifications.

Another tool used to improve care coordination in primary care practices is the EHR system. As an article published by HealthIT.gov states, “EHRs have the potential to integrate and organize patient health information and facilitate its instant distribution among all authorized providers involved in a patient’s care.”

Elation works diligently to provide solutions that help the independent primary care physician enhance care coordination efforts. Our innovative Collaborative Health Record enables you to access patient information from every provider in your network. Coordination used to require endless hours of paperwork, sending and receiving faxes, and waiting on answers from other providers, but now you have that information at your fingertips.

Shawn Myers, RN, a Patient Engagement Solution Strategist, writes in Healthwise that “organizations are accountable to provide high-quality health care at lower costs, which requires efficiency and coordination of resources.” Elation’s EHR solutions will help you provide the care coordination your primary care practice needs, to reduce your costs and to improve patient outcomes.