Lamoille County Mental Health Services coordinator helps navigate health care - vtdigger.org
News Release — Lamoille County Mental Health Services
Nov. 20, 2018
Contact:
Rebecca Copans
Phone: 802-888-5026
Email: [email protected]
LCMHS Medical Care Coordinator helps Navigate Health Care System
MORRISVILLE, VERMONT—Anyone who has accompanied a loved one to an emergency room knows how challenging it can be to navigate the medical system. Its complex language, daunting costs, and frenetic pace make it difficult for the average person to take in. If the patient has no one by their side and if they are dealing with two or more chronic conditions — plus poverty, food insecurity, and unstable housing — they face even greater challenges in navigating the healthcare system.
Sarah Williams, Lamoille County Mental Health Services (LCMHS) Medical Care Coordinator, has seen first-hand the results of that confusion and it has become her mission to directly challenge that problem. In her role, Williams has created collaborative relationships among providers at LCMHS and community partners, including primary care physicians, endocrinologists, neurologists, pharmacists and hospital emergency room staff. Her role brings together providers and information systems to coordinate health services with patient needs to better achieve the goals of treatment. “When I look into a person’s eyes, I can see the difference that help has made. They are less stressed, and can focus on getting well,” says Williams.
By having someone to help them navigate a complex system, the quality of the care that is received improves. Outcomes improve as well, as the person receives the kind of medical follow up that is required to treat their needs. Research across disciplines have shown that care coordination increases efficiency and improves clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction with care. “Greater coordination of care—across providers and across settings—will improve quality care, improve outcomes, and reduce spending, especially attributed to unnecessary hospitalization, unnecessary emergency department utilization, repeated diagnostic testing, repeated medical histories, multiple prescriptions, and adverse drug interactions” writes Susan Salmond and Mercedes Echevarria of Rutgers University School of Nursing.
Through these coordinated partnerships LCMHS is enhancing the quality of care for the individuals they serve. This gives the individual an advocate, as well as someone to translate the often murky landscape of multiple disciplines of medicine. This has a striking benefit to their mental health, quality of life and their own sense of optimism as they have one distinct person that can be contacted to help clarify information, track multiple appointments and identify specialists.
As primary and behavioral health care providers strive to integrate services, care coordination will support system-wide efforts to reduce emergency room visits and hospital stays, which is one of the greatest cost-drivers for the health care system. Based on the foundation of care coordination, primary and behavioral health care integration will make huge in roads in achieving the triple bottom line of health care: to improve the health of the population, to improve the patient experience of care (including quality, access and reliability), and to control or reduce costs.
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