What is Comprehensive Care?

1. What does comprehensive care actually mean?

The word comprehensive actually means of large scale or all inclusive.  Sometimes in health care it is important consider  the entire picture of the patient ‘s health or “the big picture”, so to speak.  In order to do this effectively, focus cannot be applied to specific problems but rather a broad view approach needs to be applied.  This allows the doctor to consider risk factors like family history, past medical history and unhealthy lifestyle in an effort to prevents problems before they occur.

2.  Why is that important?

The future of health care will place an increasing emphasis on prevention.  There are many reasons for this trend, chief of which is better outcomes.  Most disease conditions of more effectively treated when diagnosed early.  With time small problems may become bigger and more complex.   Delayed diagnosis can allow the window of opportunity for simple treatment to pass.  This can lead to bad outcomes which could have been avoided by a formal comprehensive care program.  Another reason for comprehensivecare is cost containment.   Generally speaking , it is much cheaper on the health care system to prevent a problem  or to diagnose it in the early stages than to allow it to progress. For example,  it is much more cost effective to prevent a heart attack or a stroke than to treat one.

3. Why should the individual patient care about the cost of health care??

The American health care system is very sick.  Most experts agree that status quo is unsustainable.  Current projections predict that Medicare with become insolvent between 2015 and 2020.  This should be a concern for us all.  Many other countries have demonstrated that preventative medicine is one of the most cost effective ways to deliver health care and it is better for the individual patient , as well.  For that reason, comprehensive care is “win- win” concept.

4.  Why is it important to do health screenings?  Many would say that “if it is not broke, don’t try to fix it”. The same could be said about changing the oil in a car or painting the wood on a house.  Experience tells us that routine maintenance is a good investment in regards to equipment and other valuable objects.  Our bodies are no different.  As diseases progress with time, the chances for unfavorable outcomes tend to increase as does the cost of treating .  “A stitch in time, saves nine” and “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.  These are old sayings coined by Benjamin Franklin  and they have never been more true.

A stage one cancer may show no symptoms but respond to treatment while a stage four cancer may become incurable and very costly in more ways than one.

5. So you are saying that there are disease that may not show symptoms yet still be doing ongoing damage to our bodies? 

In many cases it is true that by the time symptoms appear,  irreversible damage has been done.  Modern medicine is about being proactive and not reactive.

6.  What is the difference between an acute problem and a chronic problem?

There are many definitions but I like to think of an acute problem as one that we can expect to resolve with time.  A chronic problem may come and go (get better and get worse) but it generally is expected to persist for the long term.  Examples of an acute problem is “a cold”, broken bone, or “a pulled muscle”.  A chronic problem is something like hypertension or diabetes.  Chronic conditions are often treated but not cured.

7. Why don’t doctors like to address multiple problems at one time?  I mean if I am already in the office, why not solve all my problems at one time?

The short answer is, it can get too complicated.  I like to use the analogy of the leopard and the antelope.  The leopard will study the herd from a hill and pick out the slowest most vulnerable antelope in the heard.  Once he starts his chase, he may pass several antelopes in his pursuit but he knows that if he chases the whole heard, he will catch nothing, but if he focuses on one individual prey at a time,  he improves his chances of accomplishing what he is after.  A doctor who tries to tackle too many unrelated problems at once, becomes confused and the patient may suffer from a mistake. ” It is best to eat an elephant one bite at a time, not all at once”.

8. What do you want your patients to know about comprehensive care, holistic medicine and preventative care?

It is a wonderful investment that pays a good return in terms of cost and improved outcomes.