What Everyone Ought to Know about the Demand for Innovative Patient Follow-up
by Lifecycle Health Make an Impact on Healthcare Providers & Patient DHealthcare systems have achieved
greater heights and are no more confined to medical check-ups and treatment
procedures. It now extends to the next phase of care – patient follow-up care.
Follow up care involves regular medical check-ups to track the effectiveness of
the medical procedures carried out up till then. It is the process of setting
up patient schedules post medication or surgery on a specified date to check on
the progress of the patients since his/her last appointment with the physician.
Follow up plays a crucial role in healthcare as it helps care-givers understand
the effectiveness of the cure and make further assessments accordingly.
However, there must be a proper procedure for patient follow-up.
Set
follow-up objectives
Healthcare providers must agree on the
reason for taking follow-up sessions from patients. They can be:
- ·
To confirm medicine effectiveness
- ·
To monitor patient’s health
- ·
To share lab results
- ·
To reinforce action plans
- ·
To get referrals
Check
with patients to record their information
It is the patient himself who can give
a transparent feedback of what has happened to him post treatment. Therefore,
the best way to monitor the progress of patients’ health is the patient himself
and the information that he shares with the care-giver. Patients can record
their values for routine monitoring of certain parameters like weight, blood
pressure, blood sugar, etc. And most importantly, healthcare providers must
express their gratitude towards patients for recording this information. By
utilizing telemedicine and patient entries, specialists are expanding patient engagement and
accordingly effectively accomplishing almost 8% higher Medicare repayment
Identify
authorities who will follow-up with the patients
Value based care is
a result of a 360 degree contribution in medicinal services and has changed the
parameters of therapeutic treatment methodology. Depending on the purpose of
follow-up, healthcare authorities must decide on who will follow-up with the
patients:
- Nurse
and Medical Assistant: Nurses and medical assistants are trained
professionals who possess the expertise to follow-up with the patients to
review the documented data related to patient’s health. Nurses can also review
medicine adherence and clarify lab results.
- Primary
health clinician: For more complex healthcare conditions, a
primary health clinician must be referred to.
- Other
office staff:
The front desk staff can intervene if the patient requires information about
scheduling appointments, provide community resources, and confirm with the
patients whether they have followed up with the referrals.
Decide
on the medium used for follow-up
- Telephone: While talking on
the phone, patients can be comfortable to ask questions.
- Email:
Communicating
through emails is a secure and convenient channel to exchange information that
is provided by many patient portals.
- Postal
mail: This
medium is suitable only for exchanging basic documents such as normal lab
results and appointment reminders.
- Texts:
Many
patients prefer to get their medical information on their fingertips. For them,
sending reminders through text messaging is a convenient and very easy medium
of communication.
- Automated
calling system:
This system is a mechanized way of collecting necessary health related
information such as blood pressure from patients.
Track
follow-up schedules for better outcome
Following up for the sake of adhering
to the healthcare standards is not sufficient as it needs to be ensured to
follow proper methodologies. Healthcare providers need to discuss with clinical
colleagues as to which patients need follow-up procedures and identify an
appropriate schedule for the same.
Establishing patient follow-up must
ideally be the first priority of healthcare providers before discharging any
patient from the hospital. As mentioned above, there are various factors that
are responsible for a successful follow-up procedure. Who actually needs the
follow-up sessions, who must be responsible for conducting follow-up sessions,
what kind of follow-up is required, what medium is to be used, etc. The demand
for systematic and organized patient follow-up procedures is outgrowing and
healthcare providers must adhere to the standard guidelines. At Lifecycle
Health, we embrace the complete life cycle of a medical treatment procedure
that ends with proper follow-up care of our patients. You can contact us by
filling in your details here: http://www.lifecyclehealth.com/get-started/
and experience a dramatic way to effective
patient cure.
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Created on Oct 13th 2017 06:39. Viewed 433 times.