Chronic Care Management (CCM) is a critical component of primary care that contributes to better health and care for individuals. The introduction of CCM by CMS in 2015, improved the quality of life among thousands suffering from multiple chronic conditions. This shed light on the importance of care coordination services.

With the outbreak of COVID-19 in our nation, coordinating care has become increasingly difficult. What are the top challenges with providing coordinated care during the pandemic?

Communication and Patient Engagement

Ninety-one percent of patients with a chronic condition say they need help managing their disease. With the ongoing spread of COVID-19, patients with chronic illness are afraid of going to in-office appointments. This means their routine care is being neglected. Chronic patients need information, encouragement and resources to help them manage their health on a consistent basis. By extending support to patients between appointments, and proactively providing care coordination services to help to manage chronic diseases, providers can improve health outcomes, reduce hospital admissions and improve quality of life. Without quality communication, patients can experience conflicting medical advice, prescription discrepancies, and more that makes their care difficult to manage. With proper patient outreach, providers can keep their patients engaged with their health and safe from being exposed to the virus.

The Importance of Care Coordination

Continuous Vitals Monitoring:

With the condition of many chronically ill patients changing from day to day, vitals monitoring is essential. Not only are many of these individuals considered high-risk during the pandemic, but their regular care regimen has been interrupted. Care coordination is essential to their care by allowing them to stay safe at home and continue getting their vitals monitored, tracking progress in real-time.

Address New Issues:

For patients with multiple chronic conditions, new issues can arise often. Care coordination services make it possible for a patient to bring up new issues as they happen so that their providers can immediately address them. This enables many issues to be treated early on, preventing them from ever getting worse or unmanageable. This is how chronic care management patients experience a better quality of life.

What You Can Do to Improve Coordination During This Time

Interoperable Solution:

Interoperable technology is the key to connecting providers across different organizations. With an interoperable tool, providers can quickly and securely exchange patient data across health networks, improving care coordination. With this tool, providers can quickly view data collected by another provider. This not only helps them provide better care to the patient, but it also keeps patients from having to complete duplicate testing, saving them time, energy, and cutting costs in the process.

Outsource CCM Services:

Outsourcing Chronic Care Management services is a sure way to guarantee your practice is offering quality care coordination. Functioning as an extension of your organization, a CCM services team works with your patients to coordinate their care schedules, reconcile prescriptions, and connect them to different resources in their community. They can also collect patient questions and forward them to the appropriate member of the care team to make sure every patient’s question is answered. This is a vital tool in your practice’s effort to improve patient care and care coordination without overextending your resources or increasing costs.

With the right tools, partnerships, and technology, your practice can start implementing quality patient care. To learn more about how to start offering care coordination to your patients, click here.