Integrative healthcare is so much more than the bringing together of CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) with contemporary western evidence-based medicine. You can call that Integrative Medicine. But "Integrative Health" is an umbrella term also referring to the inclusion of patient AND provider self-care, health promotion, disease prevention, a patient centered return to healthcare management, and an over-arching concept of lifestyle change and wellness. It is about finding the most effective and efficient solution for a health problem for the least amount of cost. It is also about seeing patients as part of communities and as a sum greater than a person's bodily parts; re-merging the mind and body back together and encompassing spiritual and emotional aspects too.
Its a new kind of system that reinforces and supports the idea of health and wellbeing through health coaches and multiple sources of primary care. It is about making sure that doctors are being doctors, administrators are administrating, and nurses are being nurses, instead of expecting the doctor to care for us and the administrator making medical decisions and the nurses overseeing everything without time to care and interact with the patients. It is about leaving the doctors office with a plan and a support group to see you through it and a coach to guide the way, all under one roof. When your doctor says you need more exercise, you can get a your own personal trainer, and then get head to the kitchens where your own personal chef teaches you how to cook hearty and healthy meals. Doctors no longer have incentives to see you in the least amount of time and order the greatest number of tests possible to get reimbursements. Your doctors have incentives based on whether you actually get better. The system is about celebrating what you already do and intrinsically know to be the best person you can possibly be! It's your health home. Your doctor's diseases no longer define who you are because your healthcare system is about health, not dis-ease!
Kind of sounds to good to be true. The crazy thing is that a health system like this is already being used in hospitals and clinics around the country, and many of these systems are the most financially stable programs in the nation with some of the highest patient satisfaction numbers. Programs in these facilities are saving tens of thousands of dollars in health care costs, per person. And not only are they achieving health outcomes comparable to normal procedures, but in some cases have better health outcomes. Count me in for this kind of health care evolution!
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