Chronic Disease Management: Bridging The Gap Between Physician Care And Homecare For Improved Patient Involvement In Self-Care.
Kenyon HomeCare Consulting • March 16, 2021
Chronic disease management in homecare still isn’t getting the outcomes agencies desire. Consider your current program and whether chronic disease been updated in the last 10 years. If you aren’t seeing positive outcomes, then consider what’s missing from the MD office to the homecare environment.
Coordinating Care Directly With MD:
Coordinating care in a meaningful fashion is still tough across the healthcare spectrum. While technology allows access between different realms of healthcare, it doesn’t always translate well. It is tough when an MD practice wants communication in writing, but staff needs to speak with another clinician directly. It’s also difficult for MD offices if orders are not followed in the manner desired. Bottom line is that communication directly with the MD makes a huge difference in chronic disease management. Working with MD practices to develop streamlined chronic disease management will benefit everyone involved in care. Let’s look at how that translates into successful patient care.
Chronic Disease Management WITH The Patient:
When the patient is in the MD office, there is some amount of teaching completed with the patient. Because the patient may not see the MD for an extended period, is becomes difficult for the MD to evaluate patient understanding. A recent study showed improved patient engagement and capacity for self-care with 45-minute teaching sessions from medical student after the patient was seen by the MD. This is what homecare needs to emulate the day after the patient has seen the doctor. If the MD office works directly with homecare, the next nursing visit needs to be an extension of the MD visit. The point of disease management is not “sick” care. It is a way to best maintain health and well-being with a patient who believes in his or her own ability to manage the disease.
What Are The Next Steps?
In order to coordinate with an MD office on a coordinated management plan, your agency should be well-educated in chronic disease care. This includes all disciplines of clinicians. Here are the steps to take:
Provide Chronic Disease Management Training To All Clinical Disciplines
Update Your Chronic Disease Program
Partner With Local Physician To Pilot Coordinated Program
Frequently Evaluate The Efficacy Of The Program
Use The Partnership And Program As A Marketing Tool
Chronic Disease Management And Training Programs:
At Kenyon Homecare Consulting, we specialize in education and training programs focused on high quality outcome-based care plans. To see if Kenyon is the right fit for your agency needs, call us at 206-721-5091 or contact us online for your free 30-minute consultation.
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Today, this article will look at little different than out typical articles. We all know the costs of losing employees and trying to hire and train new ones. It is exhausting and expensive. So, we think about our wages and benefit packages all the time. What can we do differently that makes people stay? We can’t change the job and we don’t want to keep people that don’t like the work itself. So, how do we acknowledge employees in a way that is valuable to them and that our businesses can afford to do? 5 Things To Consider About Employee Recognition At Your Christmas Party: 1. Years of Service: These can be based on milestone work anniversaries (5, 10, 15 yrs, etc.). If a person has been at your agency 11 years, you pull them up and acknowledge them in the group of employees who have been there at least 10 years up until the time they hit the 15 years landmark. This way longevity is recognized yearly. 2. Special Employee awards: Now, this may be difficult if your staff is very small, but acknowledge the employee who has gone the extra mile in the job they do. Tell the story. The employee needs to know when the employer is proud of the work that has been done. Consider a plaque or certificate. Don’t minimize the value of the employee having them to display. 3. Acknowledge all employees in the mix: Because we are a clinical industry, the administrative staff is often overlooked on day-to-day operations. Ultimately, don’t miss the chance to acknowledge the employee who was able to catch billing errors or collect on a large account. Staff doesn’t like to hear about money, but those types of collections keep Christmas bonuses in place! So, make sure the other staff knows the accomplishments of the finance department or the office manager that every caller loves to speak to. Don't ever forget the IT staff that is on call more than any clinical person in your agency! 4. Letters from the administration: Add a personal note to your staff either collectively or individually depending on the size of your agency. If you are larger, there are employees you don’t often see or get to talk to on a regular basis, so take the time so send a note with that Christmas bonus. 5. Consider the Christmas bonus: Listen, some of you can afford to do substantial monetary bonuses and that is fantastic. However, if you are not in that position, consider something in its place. Maybe small gas cards go with the letter from administration. With the cost of groceries, consider something that helps with the costs of daily living for employees. Big box gift cards in your area will always be used. You may do a lot of these things on a yearly basis to employees. All this being said, it doesn’t mean there aren’t reasons for acknowledgement throughout the year. However, your annual Christmas party is a good way to do it collectively. Between your annual party, write the individual cards to employees when you hear a patient interaction worthy of praise. Or, maybe you buy a gas card for the employee who has picked up extra shifts and always shows up on time. Ultimately, employees will feel valued. You will not regret the time, effort, and energy put into these efforts. Merry Christmas! If you want help with recruitment and retention strategies for your agency, please call Kenyon Homecare Consulting at 206-721-5091 or contact us online today.