The most dangerous kind of health collab

Most clinicians practicing today believe that interdisciplinary care is better than the sum of its parts. Working together with other professionals who have various scopes and skills can enhance patient care immensely. 

There is a type of collaboration that is dangerous, not only to patient care but to the practitioners themselves. 

Have you ever been in a game of broken health telephone? 

Listening to a patient describe what their other practitioner has prescribed can be a game of who’s on first? Did they really say that something you suggested was dangerous? Did they really say the patient isn’t allowed to have imaging? Did they really say they think Naturopathic Medicine is a waste of money? 

Broken telephone collaboration is risky. It undermines each professional’s motivation to work together and often creates “sides” in the patient care equation. As part of our support for clinicians, we encourage using our knowledge base and Smart-Search bar to create collaboration letters and interprofessional communication with one click. It will even draft an email correspondence to help you and the practitioners you’re working with get on the same page. 

The most dangerous collaboration is the one you don’t know you’re in. 

We encourage NDs to imagine that 90% of their treatment plans and recommendations end up in a conventional doctor’s office. Although it’s impossible to estimate how many patients who see an ND have forgone all aspects of conventional medicine, it’s unlikely that more than 10% of patients never step foot in their medical doctor’s office again. 

This means that every recommendation, every treatment plan and every discussion you have with patients is getting shared back with their doctor. Ignoring these collaborations has reputational consequences for you as the practitioner, but also can put the patient in the middle of the two practitioners. When patients choose one plan over another instead of a collaborative approach, they are ultimately getting a worse solution than if their practitioners were working together. 

Here is how we recommend improving your reputation, your patient’s care and interprofessional collaborations in your office 

• Acknowledge your patient’s other care providers as part of your treatment plan. Share how your plan integrates with their recommendations, the rationale behind the other recommendations and how the plan is a collaboration with their other treatment plans. If you need resources to help you understand how Naturopathic care can best integrate with conventional standards, use a resource such as The Confident Clinician Smart Search or Mastery Level Membership
• Ensure your treatment plan is in alignment with the standards of care, and not in direct opposition with what has been recommended elsewhere. When your treatment plan is backed by evidence, and you can confidently explain the rationale and research, your patient is put in a more solid position to relay your recommendations back to their doctor. Even if your patient chooses to avoid medication in favour of another solution, communicating clearly the magnitude of benefit, how long it takes to see benefit, and your monitoring plan with both the patient and the other doctor can help everyone get on the same page. When we prescribe alternatives without clarifying the expected outcomes, we jeopardize both patient and practitioner trust. 
• Send communications and take responsibility for the collaboration. Sending consult notes and letters to the other members of your patient’s health care team sets the stage for evidence-based collaboration. You can add communication to your treatment plans for patients to take with them to their future appointments, or send formal letters written by our Smart Search and knowledge base. 

Getting oriented as a collaborative and connected practitioner can boost your reputation in your community, but perhaps more importantly, improve patient care. 

If you need support with 1-click evidence-backed treatment plans, support to integrate your solutions with conventional standards and letter-writing support, you can join The Confident Clinician today. 10 minutes of onboarding to our simple tech solution for your practice can create lasting professional collaborations and connections.