Improve Care Coordination with Healthcare Integration
When people are seeking medical care, no matter what their symptoms, they tend to start in the same place, their primary care physician. But often, due to the nature of their illness, or shame about talking about mental illness, they do not receive all the treatment they need from their primary care provider. According to the American Psychiatric Association, many clients need behavioral care specialists. “As many as 40% of all patients seen in primary care settings have a mental illness…” In many situations, mental illness is not the primary reason for the visit. If not addressed or realized by their primary care physician, symptoms can progress and get worse requiring additional services and more intensive levels of care.
While the primary care physician first sees an individual, learns their history, and gathers important information on his or her medical background, at times the clinician is not able to provide comprehensive treatment, due to a lack of resources, time, or simply because the treatment the client needs is not their specialty. Their client is often referred to another practice for treatment, which means it is critical that all health information is shared between providers, as missing data could result in a lapse in care. For clients who need both primary and behavioral healthcare, coordinating these efforts under one umbrella can vastly improve overall client care.
There are a variety of ways to achieve this goal. In this blog, we share a few key aspects of providing clients with integrated health care.