Lynn Cox Eldercare Management and physician collaboration can provide an opportunity for the physician to optimize the relationship between the acute care system and the chronic care needs of a frail elder with minimal social support.
Key Benefits for Physicians:
- Lynn Cox often attends medical appointments with her clients. This is especially valuable when a client has multiple medical issues and medications and/or when the patient may have some cognitive impairment. The involvement of the care manager can serve to assure that information is accurately exchanged between the physician, the elder and the home and community care providers.
- Through regular contact, care managers are able to provide monitoring of the client’s overall status and relay patient concerns while they are at a “pre-crisis” state, allowing the physician to intervene before hospitalization or even an urgent same day appointment becomes necessary.
- During this relationship with Lynn, the elder may become less inclined to make needless appointments with the physician when there is no real change in status. Given the psycho-social support and advocacy provided by the care manager, the elderly patient is less inclined to use a time-limited appointment to meet social needs, allowing the physician to enjoy a positive and productive doctor-patient relationship within that boundary.