Preliminary Care - Essay Sample

Introduction

Care coordination is a critical aspect of the modern-day healthcare sector. Care coordination is usually focused on rectifying the intractable concerns facing healthcare professionals in the industry. It addresses concerns relating to service provision costs, poor treatment outcomes on patients, and sub-standard healthcare services (Bielska et al., 2018). The concerns lead to increased medication errors, ineffective healthcare resource utilization, and increased human suffering.

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Accordingly, care coordination is used to provide the community with an opening to gain from a collaborative and recovery-oriented service delivery to manage the concerns (Johansson et al., 2019). The collaboration is derived from a deliberate patientcare plan organization with more than one participant for an adequate, appropriate, and organized service provision. Using coordinated care with a multidisciplinary aspect, care coordination ascertains that healthcare is provided using a holistic approach.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) present multiple complex health issues that demand more than just pharmacological interventions. Care coordination helps to manage these complexities and creates alternatives for quality healthcare. Using a collaborative approach, it is easy to deal with the patient’s issues and manage not only the respiratory element of the illness but also the systemic impacts and comorbidities.

Patient-focused care in COPD includes an inclusive responsibility and demands more than just an accurate diagnosis and intervention. It requires a multidisciplinary relationship among healthcare professionals to provide the most effective care possible. The interactions also involve accomplishing patient goals in determination to meet their healthcare needs. Patient-centered treatment involves both emotional and physical needs to improve care quality.

Issues on Patient’s Health

Smoking is a major risk factor for COPD. Besides being the cause of substantial flare-ups, smoking behavior damages the airways, air sacs, and the lining of the lungs (Cunningham et al., 2016). Since the lungs are injured, they tend to have a hard time enabling air in and out, hence restraining breathing. Smoking has also been supposed to be the third reason for death in the world. Accordingly, making it a significant health issue for Mrs. Ballard. According to the International Journal of COPD, the smoking rate is related to elevated patient mortality rates (Tselebis et al., 2016). However, after cessation, there is a potential for influencing the condition’s natural history.

Recently, it has been a common concern to hear physicians deny smokers treatment based on the argument that the person is morally responsible for their conditions. However, healthcare professionals have the ethical obligation to offer reasonable and just care to all patients. In situations where the patient does not implement medical decisions focused on their better health, care coordination professionals are shouldered with the moral obligation of providing the required care and resources. According to Johansson et al. (2019), ceasing smoking behavior leads to improved COPD outcomes. Moreover, the World Medical Association boldly stipulates that it is the legal obligation of every healthcare professional to provide unbiased healthcare (Bratis, 2016). Accordingly, the significant reason for implementing smoking cessation programs towards the recovery from a moral perspective.

In my care plan to help the patient, there is a critical need for family engagement. My foremost care plan is to ensure that the patient informs their families and acquaintances of the desire to cease smoking. She will also be required to enlist the causes for her decision to quit in the desire to accomplish a healthy plan. It will also be critical to encouraging her not to give up even when it seems too hard to in the initial stages. In the focus to prevent passive smoking, they will ensure that there is a smoking-free area in her home, and any ashtrays will be eradicated. If possible, she is advised only to choose smoke-free public spaces. Through the primary care physician, Mrs. Ballard will acquire medication to limit the behavior and assist in minimizing symptoms of withdrawal.

To generate a goal-centered intervention, she will provide a date to ceasing smoking and focus on accomplishing the goal. The American Lung Association offers useful resources and provides phone advice on the best measures to cease smoking (Tselebis et al., 2016). The patient will use the resources and engage the support group in accomplishing their responsibility. It might be hard, but through useful programs and newer medications, it is possible to quit smoking.

Depression and Anxiety

The patient reported anxiety and depression from COPD. Failure to diagnose and treat anxiety and depression has severe impacts on the physical abilities and social relationships of the patient (Bratis, 2016). To help her manage anxiety and depression, the patient is advised to undertake exercise regimens. The patient will also use tricyclic antidepressants administered by the primary care physician. The care coordination, together with the physician, will monitor the treatment of the patient as well as their progress in the course to recovery in 6 months.

According to the European Respiratory Journal, the approach leads to a decline in symptoms of depression and dyspnoea-affiliated disability (Li et al., 2020). Additionally, the patient will engage in a pulmonary rehabilitation program to assist in the therapy of her cognitive behavior. Using this approach, it is easy for the patient to recover.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Pulmonary rehabilitation is a significant health treatment for COPD. Through offering exercise and education to the patient using pulmonary rehabilitation, she will train her lungs and infection (Bratis, 2016). It emphasizes on training with minimal breathlessness and ensures improved effectiveness because of the peer support opportunity through the program. Through the program and skill, the patient will feel better and more comfortable in managing the illness. It also allows the patient to live healthily and participate in more physical activities and enable them to spend more time with acquaintances and family. Studies associate pulmonary rehabilitation to reduced hospital visits for flare-ups (Li et al., 2020).

Ethical Considerations

Coordinated care is based on an ethical framework. The ethical consideration aspect is very critical in my patient-focused care plan. In resource provision and care plan towards patient recovery, the plan is inconsistent with the ethical implications of all undertaken actions (Tselebis et al., 2016). Besides, it ascertains that it is incompatible with the goals and preferences of the patient to their COPD management. It is inconsistent with the principles of autonomy, dignity, respect, and sensitivity to diversity. Accordingly, the patient has a sense of empowerment in being part of the plan, and it emphasizes on accomplishing the goals. Family engagement also allows the patient to discuss their concerns and discuss their care plan.

Policy Implications

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act not only improves the number of uninsured but also focuses on enhancing healthcare provision (Tselebis et al., 2016). Through the policy, patients can acquire improved healthcare services regardless of their financial status. The policy has a significant input to the success of the coordinated care plan since it decreases the expense of treating COPD (Cunningham et al., 2016). Besides, it provides the advantage of promoting care timeliness, ensures high-quality care, and easy accessibility of medications. Alongside the ACA are tobacco control, clean air, and healthy workplace policies, which collaboratively contribute to the management of COPD. The policies ensure that the COPD patient can easily work towards attaining a body that is nicotine-free (Bratis, 2016).

Conclusion

The preliminary purpose of coordinated care is to achieve a healthy and quality of life free from manageable illness and early death because of COPD. The care plan also embarks to ensure that the social atmosphere deprived of smoke to ensure quality and healthy life. The plan purposes on promoting a healthy community, as described in Healthy People 2020. As mentioned earlier, care entails an ethical consideration of the views of family and patient to develop with an arranged healthcare plan for the fulfillment of the patient. Accordingly, there is a conviction in the effectiveness of the patient-centered strategy.

References

Bielska, I. A., Kelly Cimek, D. G., O’Halloran, K., Nyitray, C., Hunter, L., & Wodchis, W. P. (2018). Change in health care use after coordinated care planning: a quasi-experimental study. CMAJ open, 6(2), E218. https://doi.org/10.9778/cmajo.20170053

Cunningham, T. J., Eke, P. I., Ford, E. S., Agaku, I. T., Wheaton, A. G., & Croft, J. B. (2016). Cigarette smoking, tooth loss, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: findings from the behavioral risk factor surveillance system. Journal of periodontology, 87(4), 385-394.
https://doi.org/10.1902/jop.2015.150370

Johansson, H., Berterö, C., Berg, K., & Jonasson, L. L. (2019). To live a life with COPD–the consequences of symptom burden. International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 14, 905. https://doi.org/10.2147/COPD.S192280

Li, Z., Liu, S., Wang, L., & Smith, L. (2020). Mind–Body Exercise for Anxiety and Depression in COPD Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(1), 22. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010022

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Riesco, J. A., Alcázar, B., Trigueros, J. A., Campuzano, A., Pérez, J., & Lorenzo, J. L. (2017). Active smoking and COPD phenotype: distribution and impact on prognostic factors. International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, 12, 1989.
https://doi.org/10.2147/COPD.S135344

Senderovich, H. (2016). How Can We Balance Ethics and Law When Treating Smokers?

Tselebis, A., Pachi, A., Ilias, I., Kosmas, E., Moussas, G., Tzanakis Nikos, N., & Bratis, D. (2016). Strategies to improve anxiety and depression in patients with COPD: a mental health perspective. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 297.
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