'We Won't Let You Fall'

OACIS Services supports people with advanced complex illnesses

It’s common for patients to live 20 years or more with chronic illness, but dealing with it isn’t so easy. In today’s health care environment, patients see multiple specialists, can become confused about their care and fall through the cracks of the health care system.

Hospitals nationwide are determining how to support people with severe illnesses such as congestive heart failure or lung disease. And LVHHN is leading the way with the development of OACIS Services, which stands for Optimizing Advanced Complex Illness Support.

Each patient is assigned a team to help coordinate his care and guide him and his family through his illness journey. The team stays on top of the patient’s care and makes sure he receives the appropriate treatments at the right times. This heads off problems that could have previously resulted in visits to the emergency room.

“We help manage patients’ symptoms while addressing their emotional and spiritual needs,” says OACIS medical director Lou Lukas, M.D. “We’ll ask a patient, ‘If you had just a year to live, what would you want to do?’ and frame his care around his goals for the future.”

The program launched at LVH–Cedar Crest in late-September on 7B and will roll out to units 7A and 7C later this year into early January before being offered to the rest of LVHHN’s patients.

ARTICLE TOOLS: