Social Isolation, Chronic Disease Management Focus for Senior Care
Senior-focused organizations place social isolation and chronic disease management as top priorities for the remainder of the pandemic and beyond, according to Insights most recent report.
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By - Delivering care to seniors will look different after the pandemic as senior care providers focus on social isolation and chronic disease management, a new report from Insights found.
Isolation has become a familiar term amid the coronavirus pandemic as social distancing and lockdown measures intentionally kept people apart to keep them safe. Now that vaccination efforts are well underway and the country is reopening, the healthcare industry must combat this challenge and the emerging delayed care crisis.
Eighty-one percent of senior care providers say they are focusing on social isolation in their patient populations. This proportion jumps to 88 percent in skilled nursing and long-term care facilities.
“Regardless of the situation, if there are cases of isolation, behavioral or mental health wellbeing needs to be a significant part of the conversation,” one nursing home administrator highlighted during qualitative follow-up. “One question that hasn’t been adequately answered on a large-scale is understanding the health risk and the collateral health risks which are isolation and depression.”
Social isolation is a challenge that will not be solved instantaneously. To begin tackling it, organizations are leveraging a variety of solutions:
- 87 percent use virtual communications such as video conferencing
- 25 percent home visits
- 23 percent remote monitoring
- 23 percent partnership with community organizations
- 16 percent grandkids on-demand
Organizations are also rolling out social media conversations, family member engagement, and window visits to combat social isolation.
But the slow progress emphasizes the impact of social isolation on other areas of care.
“We’re fighting an uphill battle of lack of care. It’s the acute issues of the pandemic superimposed on the chronic issues of long-term care,” one contractor in a skilled nursing facility emphasized during qualitative follow-up.
Coordinating care including social isolation work is a concern for senior care providers as 73 percent of respondents say it is a priority and 37 percent say it is the top priority at their organization.
“It’s tough when you don’t have COVID as an overlying factor in your patient population. But with COVID, we just have to continue to ramp up our efforts and call these members more often,” explained a director of Medicare risk arrangements. “We should hopefully identify some compounding issues that may result in a crash into the emergency room.”
It is reassuring that many providers are renewing focus on care coordination now that the acute challenges of patient care delivery have quelled. But supporting seniors in particular requires enhancing these resources and leveraging multiple strategies to care for seniors throughout the remainder of the pandemic and in the future.
Transforming Care For Seniors: The Impact of 2020 highlights the challenges to delivering care to seniors during and beyond the pandemic. Results outline strategies senior-focused organizations are implementing to improve patient outcomes. The full report can be found here.
