The HOPE Note
A TOOL FOR ADDING INTEGRATIVE HEALTH CARE TO A ROUTINE OFFICE VISIT
PREPARATION
Preparing for an integrative health visit requires understanding why it’s needed. Download the guide to learn more (PDF).
It’s clear that the US healthcare system needs changing. The costs are too high and the results too poor. The system also needs changing because our patients have changed. What we get mostly from healthcare was built on an acute care model to treat illness – usually applied at late stages. That approach no longer works for healing chronic disease we have today.
Chronic diseases account for 81 percent of hospital admissions, 91 percent of prescriptions, and 76 percent of all physician visits. In addition, just 1 percent of patients account for more than 20 percent of healthcare costs, with the top 5 percent of patients responsible for nearly half of all healthcare spending in the United States. This is unsustainable in an environment in which the goals are to improve the health and wellbeing of populations while reducing costs.