Quality Care Enhances Quality of Life

Our team recently came across a great story about care management, in which a patient with multiple hospitalizations and chronic conditions was able to get the support she needed to do the thing that mattered most to her — stay with her pups in the country home she loves, with views of rolling hills and horses grazing nearby.

We presented Glinda’s story at a recent UnityPoint Health board meeting as an example of what someone’s quality of life looks like when they have the resources needed to live a quality life. When there isn’t a cure, but there are treatments and people who can help carry the burden of deteriorating health.  

It reminded me of a book by a forward-thinking surgeon and recently-named CEO of the Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan partnership, Dr. Atul Gawande. You can read a full review of Being Mortal here, but in short, Gawande’s book is summarized best as this:

“In a society that values independence, what happens when that is no longer possible? We need to reckon with the reality of the body’s eventual decline [Gawande] argues, think about what matters most to us, and adapt our society and medical profession to help people achieve that.”

As an organization that is patient-centered, our job is to provide exceptional care for people in many circumstances. For Glinda, that meant having a pharmacist sit down and research ways to ease her financial anxieties with more affordable medications. It meant having transportation to take her to and from her doctor’s appointments.

I feel so much pride knowing that was our team. Our care management processes allowed us to recognize when Glinda needed more hands-on deck.

We are all going to need a village at some point in our lives, and it’s an amazing thing to be assured there will always be one at UnityPoint Clinic and at Home.