The healthcare delivery space has seen a lot of changes over the last decade. There has been a boon in the building of ambulatory surgery centers; urgent care centers have become ubiquitous; and telemedicine has skyrocketed in usage and popularity. This all has led to the next big transition in medicine: a delivery model called “distributed care” (DC).
What is Distributed Care (DC)?
The idea of DC starts with decentralized medicine. In other words, patients are being treated closer to home rather than being sent to hospitals. This is accomplished through a network of outpatient care facilities, some of which are increasingly found in retail spaces (like Wal-Mart), as well as through home monitoring and care.
The Past is Prologue
Most of the healthcare was still provided in homes at the start of the 20th century. As modern medicine developed, the focus of this paradigm shifted to clinics and hospitals. DC is aiming to return us to a time when treatment was physically or practically brought to the patient’s neighborhood or even home.
Naturally, not all care can be provided in this way. Although there will always be a need for hospitals and ASCs for some operations, including surgeries, there are so many preventive healthcare measures that can be carried out in alternative settings at a lower cost.
Why is Transition Needed?
As per a research study by Philips, it was found that healthcare executives now rank extending care delivery outside of hospitals as their top goal, ahead of staff retention and satisfaction. Global health systems are under growing financial strain because of issues including rising expenses. There is a growing understanding that healthcare needs to relocate into less expensive settings whenever possible. This will help address people’s health issues at a much earlier stage and, ideally, prevent them. That is what DC is all about. That is the reason DC exists.
The New Look of Care
The authors of the study predict that there will be four different ways that dispersed care will take shape. They are: new hospital, virtual, mobile, and walk-in. When it comes to virtual care, real-time monitoring and telehealth are largely used for home care. In the notion of mobile care, medical professionals visit patients where there is a need, such as in disadvantaged communities. The walk-in approach will continue to be well-liked by patients with the introduction of clinics at stores. Patients who need specialized care and are seeking it in a hospital environment are included in the new hospital care bucket.
Hospitals will continue to play a crucial role as healthcare becomes more widely distributed, though it will be more specialized. As a Philips representative puts it, “Hospitals without walls will emerge, serving both as a central physical hub and as an orchestrator of a wider ecosystem of care.”