Chronic Care Management in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic
Chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, kidney diseases, obesity, and cardiovascular disease are risk factors that increase the severity of the COVID-19 illness and result in negative outcomes.
According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, even pregnant women, smokers, and people with Dementia, Asthma, and COPD are at an increased risk of severe illness from coronavirus. This is why it is critical for people suffering from chronic diseases or a weakened immune system to lead healthier lives by seeking healthcare and adhering to their doctor’s prescription.
Patient’s compliance refers to when a patient wholly agrees and adheres to prescriptions (drugs, diets, use of medical devices, and/or lifestyle changes) given by his healthcare provider.
As a patient, treatment compliance is something you must learn, especially if you are managing a chronic disease in the middle of a pandemic. Why? Because it influences the effectiveness and outcomes of the treatment administered. Medication adherence helps to improve quality of life, health outcomes and save healthcare costs. It also decreases the severity of a COVID infection and results in a positive outcome. For healthcare providers, patient compliance makes operations seamless, and it increases their success rates. They can diligently support their patients and deliver effective healthcare. Before we give tips on how to improve compliance, let’s have a look at the different types of non-compliance:- Delay in seeking proper healthcare treatment.
- Taking an incorrect dose.
- Taking the medication at the wrong time.
- Refusing to follow the doctor’s instructions.
- Not showing up to clinical appointments.
- Following the prescription when it’s almost appointment day (also known as white-coat compliance).
- Choosing to stop the medication/therapy abruptly only to restart whenever you feel like it (also known as drug holidays).
- Improve communication with your patient and invest more time to explain the benefits of the treatment. Be transparent and educate them on the side effects of dismissing your recommendations. Also, try to understand their behaviors and how they view the prescriptions. Become their trusted friend.
- Reach out to concerned family and friends and have them keep the patient accountable.
- Use mobriseHealth, a health tech platform powered by Al that supports easy provider-patient communication. As a provider, you can customize the prescription of medications and lifestyle changes to suit your patients. You can communicate virtually and remotely monitor the health status of your chronic patients.
