What is Chronic Disease? Improve Patient Care With Knowledge!
Kenyon HomeCare Consulting • March 15, 2021
There’s an epidemic sweeping this country. It’s one that affects nearly half of all American adults and accounts for seven out of the top ten causes of death in the U.S. Those are pretty staggering numbers! So what exactly is this problem facing us today? Chronic disease.
What is Chronic Disease?
According to National Health Council, the term chronic disease is defined as a serious health condition lasting three months or longer. A few conditions classified as a chronic disease include:
Heart disease
Cancer
Type 2 diabetes
Stroke
Arthritis
Obesity
While some chronic diseases can’t be completely prevented, there are certain high risk behaviors that contribute to the possibility of an adult becoming ill. For example, smoking, poor diet, physical inactivity, and alcohol put all at an increased risk for developing one or more chronic diseases as we age.
The Prevalence of Chronic Disease
According to the latest research, an estimated 117 million people in the U.S. suffer from at least one chronic disease. Even more shocking is the fact that about one out of four American adults have two or more conditions falling into this category. This means that someone dealing with cancer may also be diagnosed with heart disease and arthritis. Imagine going through life managing multiple chronic diseases, while anticipating that the slightest misstep may send you to the hospital.
The Cost of Chronic Disease
This pandemic overtaking our nation is not only causing widespread health issues, but also contributes to the majority of health care costs including hospitalizations. In fact, nearly 90 percent of the total amount of health care spending in 2012 was for patients with one or more chronic disease.
It’s not just the big players like cancer that gobble up the health care budget. The underlying issues contributing to the disease also cut into spending. Take obesity, for example. While identified as chronic disease, it also contributes to other chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease. Medical costs for people who are obese tend to soar almost $1500 higher annually than those with healthy weights.
Caring for Patients Chronic Disease
The rising number of those diagnosed, medical costs, and death rates associated with chronic disease is also effecting home care providers. People suffering from one or more of these conditions must learn to live differently than they’re accustomed to. While continuing to live at home, those with chronic disease are managing their conditions and dealing with major lifestyle modifications. They are giving up old habits and managing diet and activity restrictions.
Because most of these patients are elderly, they may also suffer from declining mental faculties—meaning they may not be mentally able to manage multiple medications or complete personnel care activities.
Caregivers tending to patients with chronic diseases need to understand disease progression, treatments and be capable of providing much more than routine care. They need to be fully equipped to help these patients readjust their lives and more easily manage multiple diseases.
The Benefits of Chronic Disease Education
There’s no way around it—modern people are living longer, but not healthier. Medical advances have increased life span, but quality of life has decreased as a result of unhealthy behaviors. This means it’s more important than ever for homecare aides to participate in chronic disease education. Here are a few benefits of this type of advanced training:
Reduced patient hospitalizations
Increased ability to provide specialized care
Opportunity to meet a major need of the Baby Boomer generation
Ability for homecare organizations to offer advanced services and increase profits
Allows agencies to care for a wider variety of clients
Kenyon HomeCare Consulting’s Aide University gives homecare organizations and aides the tools they need to rise to the challenge of chronic disease care. Our program increases the value of your aides and reduces overall health care costs for your patients. To learn more, visit our information page or contact us today!
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HOPE Question and Answer Repository
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.