Modern Healthcare: What Are the Key Principles of Complete Care?
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One of the hottest trends in American healthcare right now is complete care. The complete care philosophy is not exactly new, but it is finally coming into its own after years of being viewed as just a fad. To patients, complete care seems like a foreign entity. So what is it, exactly?
Complete care is a coordinated healthcare approach designed around the goal of improving patient outcomes by addressing every applicable aspect of a person’s physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. It rests on a number of core components as described below.
1. Emphasis on the Patient
The first core component is emphasis on the patient. Others have described this component as offering person-centered care. However, I don’t think that phrase does it justice. All healthcare services are delivered to patients – that is the whole point. On the other hand, emphasizing the patient over the provider is what makes the difference.
An emphasis on the patient dictates that caregivers be responsive to their patients. It dictates that providers actually pay attention to patient values, needs, and preferences. Providers treat patients with dignity and respect. They encourage participation in decision making. They seek to educate in a way that patients actually understand.
2. Multidisciplinary Care
Complete care is multidisciplinary care. Clinicians do not act alone. They coordinate with their counterparts across multiple specialties to make sure every need is met. They also communicate as much as possible to ensure that every provider stays in the loop. Modern Healthcare: What Are the Key Principles of Complete Care.
3. System Integration
In a complete care setting, systems are both integrated and coordinated. Primary care offices, hospitals, and other service providers rely on integrated data systems that facilitate real time communication and care coordination. No one involved in providing care is shut out – technically or practically.
4. Openness to Alternative Treatments
Next up is an openness to alternative treatments. This may be the toughest principle of all for clinicians unable to look at anything outside of conventional medicine. But as the experts at Utah-based KindlyMD explain, there is no shortage of alternative treatments that have proven themselves worthy despite not being considered mainstream.
KindlyMD’s approach to complete care includes a variety of complementary therapies and services including medication management and plant-based medicines. Their clinics offer sleep support, behavioral therapies, and mental health programs.
5. Caregiver Empowerment
The complete care philosophy does not discount a patient’s care givers. Whether those caregivers are family members, friends, or members of the local community, they are empowered to participate in whatever way the patient wants. Caregivers are also supported through different services.
6. Community Integration
Hospitals and primary care offices cannot truly offer complete care on their own. They also need the help of community organizations that can assist with the social aspects of wellness. Practically speaking, community integration manifests itself in the practice of helping patients plug into community resources made available outside of the clinical setting.
7. Technology Enhancements
Finally, complete care takes advantage of modern technology. Technology is utilized to remove barriers that otherwise prevent access to care. It can also be utilized to educate patients, help them manage their own health more effectively, and even facilitate better communication between patient and clinician.
The current drive toward complete care may be the result of a decades long push to move healthcare away from the fee-for-service model in favor of outcome-based delivery. Or it could just be a response to the economic realities of modern healthcare. Regardless of the impetus, it is good to see that complete care is finally catching on. In my opinion, it’s a far better way to care for people.
