Editor’s note: This week’s post describes a program that helps frail seniors live healthier for longer at home. “Community Aging in Place — Advancing Better Living for Elders” helps by removing practical barriers to everyday activities so seniors can engage in daily life and health-related activities and safely age in place. Occupational therapists, carpenters and […]
When I think about patient engagement, I’m usually thinking of patients and caregivers engaged in care plans directed and managed by healthcare professionals. The settings most familiar to me include hospitals, physician practices, and ambulatory care offices, such as physical therapy practices, urgent care facilities, and community clinics. I’m not usually thinking of home care. Patient […]
What you need to understand about me is that I’ve lived my entire life outside the box. Active, engaged, creative and in control—that’s me. I was a master builder who worked on centuries-old buildings in and around my hometown of Portland, Oregon. I was the guy people called when a building had a problem no […]
I was placed on dialysis when I was 30 years old. Before my diagnosis of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) or kidney failure, I had been an active, adventurous world traveler. I spent time in the Middle East, first in the Army, then later as a civilian defense contractor. When I finally rotated back to Kansas […]
Any list of the burning issues in healthcare will include skyrocketing costs, utilization (both over and under), lack of access, the ongoing surge in chronic disease, the need for greater patient engagement and better patient experience, lack of effective coordination of care, a healthcare finance system that still rewards incidental and procedural events at the […]
What if doctors prescribed community support resources with lifestyle changes instead of just medicine? What if your referral was to an outside group or program rather than to a specialist? There are many organizations and resources outside of the traditional health system that can act as ambassadors for promoting and maintaining health, and when utilized […]
Today’s chronic disease patient is often inundated with education about his or her condition. Although clinicians and educators have good intentions, and the material provided is robust and thorough, traditional education often fails to drive patients to make needed behavior changes. The Challenge of the Returning Patient Nearly 25% of patients hospitalized with congestive heart […]
I recently attended a conference on patient engagement where one of the speakers discussed the growth projections of chronic illness in the U.S., describing the dire consequences it will have on our health delivery system if unaddressed. The primary implication was one of scale. For example, how will we as a system respond when confronted […]
As a Planetree hospital, Griffin Hospital is committed to engaging patients and families with access to information and education. In 2012, we identified a lack of consistent patient disease education with teach-back which contributed to a high readmission rate for Heart Failure. We introduced “HERE TO HOME,” a program to address communication and patient education […]
This week, I was once again reminded of the prevalence and impact of low health literacy. An article on WashingtonPost.com penned by CVS Caremark pointed to these statistics from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that looked at the elder segment of the population, age 65 and older: 2/3 of older people are unable to […]