To help a child stay healthy and happy, parents may need to get help not only from a pediatrics clinic, but also from other care providers such as a mental health counselor or occupational therapist. In the past, these different specialists assisted patients more or less independently, with little or no knowledge of what the other providers were doing.
What we’ve learned, however, is that better outcomes can be achieved for patients through what is called “integrated care.” Also known as interprofessional healthcare, coordinated care and comprehensive care, this approach emphasizes a high degree of communication and coordination among all the professionals treating a particular patient. Integrated care has been shown to deliver a number of important benefits both to patients and to care providers like Mountainland Pediatrics.
How Integrated Care Promotes Better Overall Health
Integrated care, which addresses all aspects of a patient’s physical, mental and emotional health from cradle to grave, provides a number of advantages. They include:
- Better access to services. It used to be that a provider would recommend you see another type of specialist but then would leave it to you to find that person and establish a relationship. With integrated care, the initial provider helps you find the additional resources you need and works closely with that person or team to help them understand your “backstory” so that they can bring their expertise to bear on your problems quickly and effectively.
- Improved quality of care. When care providers across disciplines work in unison, it is easier for them to see the “big picture” regarding your health and well-being, and therefore they are able to better communicate as a team and come up with better solutions for addressing any challenges you face.
- Decreased care costs. When care providers collaborate effectively, the result is greater efficiency, and greater efficiency can yield significant cost savings.
Mountainland’s Integrated Care Services
Mountainland Pediatrics was originally an independent clinic that would refer children and their parents to other types of care providers as needed. Then the clinic was purchased by Community Reach Center (CRC), a Denver-area community mental health center, to enable both entities to provide truly integrated care.
Today, the Early Childhood Team from CRC shares space with Mountainland in Thornton. That means that parents and their children have easy access to pediatricians, registered nurses, pediatric nurse practitioners, medical assistants, psychologists, a psychiatrist, an infant mental health specialist, therapists who have experience in childhood development and an occupational therapist. The result is increased convenience for busy families and exceptional, attentive care for patients and a reassuring sense of support for parents.
If you have questions about services available through Mountainland Pediatrics and our integrated care team, contact us 303-430-0823.
