A new RAND study has found improving the coordination of care for elderly patients with chronic diseases reduces the risk of complications and cuts hospital costs.
Patients with chronic illnesses often see many different healthcare providers working in multiple clinical locations, and poor communication between provider and patient is common. These factors can lead to higher use of health services and poorer outcomes, according to a RAND news release.
Researchers looked at data from nearly 300,000 Medicare patients with type 2 diabetes, congestive heart failure or emphysema. Their analysis revealed that even modest improvements in coordination of care for these patients led to reductions in hospital admissions and use of emergency departments. Care coordination improvements also led to fewer complications and lower healthcare costs.
The findings, published by JAMA Internal Medicine, suggest that improving the coordination of care for patients with these three illness could save Medicare as much as $1.5 billion per year.
"Improving the coordination of care for patients with chronic illnesses can be difficult to achieve, but our findings suggest that it can have benefits for both patients and the healthcare system," said Peter Hussey, a senior policy researcher at RAND and lead author of the study, in the news release.
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