Chronic Disease Management with Direct Primary Care

Chronic diseases, also known as chronic illnesses, require an ongoing level of treatment and last for at least one year. These illnesses affect 60% of adults in the United States, according to the CDC.

Unlike a normal disease or illness, a chronic disease requires constant management. Normally, when someone develops an illness or disease, the body’s defenses kick in. After a period of sickness, the body is able to rid itself of the disease. The person recovers and is able to return to normal life.

In the case of a chronic illness, the body is unable to rid itself of the disease, and symptoms never truly go away. Instead, the body is constantly battling a disease and never gets the upper hand.

Types of chronic diseases include:

• Heart disease
• Cancer
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Diabetes
• Kidney disease
• Lung disease
• Arthritis
• Endometriosis
• Hashimoto’s disease
• Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
• Fibromyalgia 
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
• Lyme disease

Due to their ongoing natures, chronic diseases are challenging for both doctors and patients to deal with together.

Chronic Disease Management

Effective chronic disease management requires constant monitoring of symptoms. It’s important to have a doctor that has full knowledge of your health situation, can get you frequent appointments, and is available to answer questions outside of the office. Ideally, this level of care shouldn’t break the bank. 

This certainly is a tall order, and unfortunately, the primary care system isn’t fit to accommodate chronic disease patients. 

These days, doctor’s offices and hospital waiting rooms are packed with people needing to receive care. It’s an uphill battle trying to get an appointment in the first place. How is a chronic disease patient supposed to go through this process over and over?

Because primary care doctors have so many patients to see, they’re unable to devote their full time and attention to chronic disease patients. With most doctor’s appointments, you spend more time in the waiting room than you do with your doctor. 

This approach to healthcare isn’t sustainable for chronic disease patients, who need higher levels of attention and care from their doctors. Not to mention, primary care bills add up even faster for chronic illness patients. The only thing you’ll get out of this model is a drained bank account.

How Direct Primary Care Can Help

The direct primary care model seeks to fill the gaps of primary care and provide a higher level of treatment. This healthcare approach is effective for many types of patients, but it’s especially ideal for someone with a chronic disease.

With direct primary care, chronic disease patients don’t spend hours on the phone or in the waiting room. At Link Primary, we provide our patients with immediate appointments. This is perfect for a chronic disease patient who needs to see us often. If there’s an emergency or urgent health situation, a chronic disease patient can rest assured that he or she will receive immediate support and treatment. 

Direct primary care doctors limit the number of patients compared to primary care offices. Instead of seeing huge numbers of people every day, we admit fewer patients but spend more time with each one of them. This allows us to get to know each patient and his or her health situation more deeply. A chronic disease patient won’t have to explain their health situation over and over again. By getting to know our patients best, Link Primary is able to craft a healthcare plan that’s completely tailored to their situation. No more blanket approaches to treatment! 

In the case of both emergencies and small health concerns, most people either visit the emergency room or ignore symptoms. For chronic disease patients especially, this isn’t an ideal option. An urgent care doctor won’t be familiar with you or your health history, and ignoring your symptoms may lead to big complications later on. 

With direct primary care, you’re able to get in touch with your doctor at all times. At Link Primary, our patients can access us via phone call, text, or email—whether it’s with a critical health concern or a minor question.

To top it off, direct primary care is most affordable for chronic illness patients. Traditional primary care usually involves insurance hassles, expensive co-pays, and surprise out-of-pocket costs. When you see a doctor every so often, this may not feel like a big deal. But this soon becomes outrageously expensive for chronic disease patients.

At Link Primary Care, we provide our services in exchange for a monthly fee. Expect no hidden charges or copays, just unlimited access to our high-quality healthcare. We also go the extra mile by giving our patients access to discounted labs and prescriptions. This approach is exactly what chronic disease patients need out of their healthcare!

Chronic Disease Management in St. Louis

When it comes to chronic disease management, direct primary care is the most affordable and effective method of treatment. We offer chronic disease management as part of our services for adults, children, and students. Schedule a free consultation so we can best serve you.