Care coordination is essential for patients with chronic diseases whose treatment plans require provider input from multiple specialties.
Treatment for diabetes—one of the most expensive chronic diseases in the US—may incorporate care from over ten kinds of healthcare professionals. If these providers have poor communication, they can make a patient’s diabetes treatment plan even more complicated, Julie Bietsch, senior vice president of clinical operations at Aetna, explained to Healthcare Strategies.
“People need help accessing and coordinating all the information provided to them,” Bietsch said. “The key is you have to make the solution more personalized, resolve the barriers a person faces, and connect care with the solution people can implement.”