Getting More Information In Between Appointments & Minimizing Fear

I think it is wonderful that the clinical community is looking to further support care beyond the walls of the MD physical office. Reading this recent article from a CVS cardiologist really shows how quickly patient engagement has slowed during this pandemic. Can you blame someone’s natural instincts from wanting to avoid going to the hospital or visiting a doctor even though they may be sick or living with a chronic health condition? 

Could Fear Become Fatal? 

Data has shown that people are afraid to return to the doctor’s office, which is leading to a big gap in chronic care management when patients are relying only on in-person resources. Addressing this, CVS has announced they have launched a new campaign to educate individuals on the importance of seeking preventative care and ongoing treatment for chronic diseases. 

Not only it is good practice to see how care delivery models evolve but it is also good business. We all understand pharmacies want to expand their role within the community to be more than just medication dispensing destinations. For 5 years we have been doing the same thing by supporting how the PCP engages their existing patients to understand how they are doing between office visits. 

Gathering Information In The Moment

We all share the same goal -- helping to keep the patient stable and hopefully progressing towards a better life following the physician’s orders. What we’ve learned after having hundreds of thousands of telehealth interactions is that patients are very good at sharing how they are doing at the exact moment in time.  However, where the challenge is – and why we are proud of new care delivery models – is can the patient answer how they were feeling 6 or even 9 weeks ago by the time they get to their next appointment? This is the gap which speaks to needing on-going regular telehealth consults, expanded pharmacy services, and even relying on the smartphone with their FDA cleared applications. 

The more we know about the patient journey, the better we know how well they really are doing. Just being able to record a trend line on vital systems is incredibly valuable to the PCP. Perhaps the biggest trick is how best to share such recorded information with all who need to know it. Collaboration is easy to imagine, tough to implement! We should never forget what PCP stands for as that individual is, and should always be, considered the ‘primary’ provider. We all have a big part to play as we try and help patients going forward. I applaud CVS’ initiative and hope patients flock to these new care delivery models.