How does coordinated care help people with disability?

People with disabilities around the world feel disadvantaged. That’s because a city infrastructure or even a hospital environment is never built keeping their need in mind. The World Health Organisation (WHO) 2017 reports that about 15% of the world's population lives with some form of disability, of whom 2-4% experience significant difficulties in functioning. What’s worrying is the global disability prevalence is higher than previous WHO estimates, which date from the 1970s and suggested a figure of around 10%. This creates room for coordinated care services.

These are the top reasons for the rise in the percentage of world disability –

/ ageing population
/ rapid spread of chronic diseases and new diseases like AIDS
/ alcohol and drug abuse
/ improvements in the methodologies used to measure disability

A few trends in world disability stand out –

/ Roughly 650 million people, live with a disability
/ In most of the OECD countries, females have higher rates of disability than males
/ Having a disability places you in the world's largest minority group
/ Eighty percent of persons with disabilities live in developing countries, according to the UN Development Program (UNDP)
/ About 15 out of every 100 people in the world has a disability

What do disabled people lack in healthcare?

Emerging data are indicating that people with disabilities, as a group, experience health disparities more often than those without disabilities. These are usually in routine public health arenas such as –
/ health behaviors
/ clinical preventive services
/ chronic conditions

Studies are also picking out common trends around the world when it comes to providing healthcare to the disabled groups. They are often less likely to receive recommended preventive health care services, such as routine teeth cleanings and cancer screenings. Disabled people are also often at a high risk for poor health outcomes such as falls-related injuries, hypertension, obesity and mood disorders such as depression. It becomes obvious that the only way to reach out to people with disability is to provide coordinated care solutions and telemedicine platforms.

What are coordinated care solutions?

Coordinated care solutions are cloud-based platforms that help care teams, clinics, hospitals and patients collaborate together on easy applications. These are not just online applications but an entire collaboration environment where everything related to patient’s treatment and recovery is on one platform. They eliminate the need for emails and calls and even visits and are able to reach out to patients without them having to physically walk down to the clinic.

Why do the disabled need coordinated care solutions more?

People with disabilities need special help. This demographic typically has a majority of the elderly and the children who are often not able to visit a hospital or a clinic without some help. Coordinated care solutions come with telemedicine facilities and often eliminate the need for physical visits.

Studies have shown that the following disability conditions (but not limited to) merit a telemedicine solution or a coordinated healthcare solution -
1.lower limb pathology
2.upper limb (congenital radial head dislocation, fibrous dysplasia)
3.tone/spasticity
4.developmental dysplasia of the hip
5.increased tibial torsion and/or increased femoral neck anteversion
6.hands (clinodactyly, camptodactyly, hypoplastic thumbs, syndactyly)

How does coordinated care help the disabled?

Good and clear communication

Coordinated care services are cloud-based and often enable real-time communication between care teams and the disabled. As a result, the patients are always on the loop and they have control over what’s going on. One of the major reasons listed by the WHO for lack of care for the disabled has been the dearth of clear communication.

More choice and control over their healthcare

People with disabilities are disadvantaged and hence almost never have a say in their treatment. Imagine a hearing-impaired person who is surrounded by care teams who can hear. He is almost never able to hear or know what they are saying unless he is accompanied by an interpreter. But coordinated care providers bridge this gap by creating a HIPAA-complaint communication environment. The patient can retain the information and can demand whichever information he/she needs. The disabled people are thus able to make decisions about whether or not they wish to go for say corrective surgery or physiotherapy sessions.

Preventive and recovery healthcare

People with disabilities often have these ailments permanently. In addition, they get ailments related to their disability. With the help of coordinated care solutions, the hospitals are able to create easy follow-up and recovery plans for such patients. Patients can monitor these plans remotely and start following through reminders and notifications. Similarly, future challenges related to their health can be prevented based on the patterns of ailments that are recorded and analyzed by care teams on these applications.

Evidence-based wellness programs

The challenges of each disabled person are often unique to his/her condition. Coordinated care solutions and apps make it possible to provide proofs, facts and charts related to the health of the disabled. This enables care teams to make strategies and wellness programs based on evidence.

Hospitals, clinics and healthcare organizations that are engaging people with disabilities can make a huge difference for this demographic. The WHO has been projecting increases in the number of disabled children over the next 30 years especially in developing countries. There have been so many incidents of refugee children suffering during armed conflicts and violence. It is estimated that for every child killed in warfare, three are injured and acquire a permanent disability.
Not only hospitals and clinics but also voluntary organizations and care groups can cater to this demographic by building intelligent coordinated care solutions.

Vinfotech has been a provider of coordinated care solutions for several organizations. We have built successful cloud-based solutions for hospitals, clinics and other healthcare organizations. If you are keen on helping the disabled people get better healthcare, give us a call.