Coordinating Your Care

KYW Medical Reports Sponsored By Independence Blue Cross

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Depending on where you live you may be in a specialist driven physician market and you may not have access to a family doctor or someone to coordinate your care.

This is particularly true of those who have multiple medical problems.  Many seniors have several doctors who work independent of each other.  Specialists with the best intentions, each in their own world of medicine, can do a great job, but if one doesn't know what the other is doing, there can be problems.  Different drugs are prescribed.  It's common for certain drugs to interact and cause side-effects that can be harmful.  You can imagine the problems.

There are a couple of remedies.  One is to make sure each specialist knows all the medications being taken.  The other is a family physician who can coordinate and look into everything.  Again, what you need here is quality care.  You need to have it supervised and evaluated.  You need to be constantly followed over time. It is definitely worth mentioning that certain specialists take an active role in coordinating care, but you need to make certain that all factors are being considered.