Health care systems involve multi-disciplinary groups of practitioners who form “teams”, each of them with an approach of tolerance and awareness for other disciplines as we find patients sent from one practitioner to another. There has been an evolution with other entities like pharmacies as well, with advancement from clinical pharmacy through pharmaceutical care to medical therapy management services. Pharmacies have now become more focussed on direct patient care. Thus healthcare is in a dynamic state with several cost concerns, legislative reform and quality concerns driving transformation. Payors are looking at everything the providers do and every dollar they spend. Providers are hence challenged to do more with less. In this article we examine the fundamental principles of healthcare, looking at why we are here and what we hope to accomplish for patients and communities. We also examine Kaiser Permanente and the Cleveland Clinic Models that had evolved over the centuries.x1
Over the last decade we have seen several different models:
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Wellness and healthcare services being at the entry point in the system.
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Model in which healthcare professionals share common knowledge base, an instinct to help patients, where professional boundaries become blurred or overlap, where professionals share a common knowledge base and a common professional interest.
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A model that encourages an interdisciplinary approach with the providers having shared borders.
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Medical Management and disease management provided by “Physician Extenders” with the use of evidence based medicine.
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With models and systems in place that are outcomes driven and outcomes justified.
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Use of complementary and alternative medicine within the scope of the delivery model.
There are challenges faced by every sector of the healthcare industry in identifying, embracing and driving their many roles within this new healthcare model.
The direction we take today would affect health care scenario in the years to come. If we do not take the trouble to create change – change will (re) create us!