Something feels right about having patients more involved in and informed about their own care. Something looks right when accurate information becomes accessible and available at the time a person needs it. Colo. Lynch was among the first to apply the demand management concept to the health care industry. And while demand management, like anything else, can certainly be twisted into something undesirable, its patient focus feels almost revolutionary. Something is intuitively right about providing health care this way.
Demand management is the process of empowering patients to make wiser health care decisions.
It is not necessarily about reducing demand or keeping patients out of your practice. Rather, the goal is to engage patients in the quest for appropriate care. If you doubt the necessity of managing demand, think about all the patients who press you to prescribe antibiotics for their colds or demand other interventions you know to be unwarranted. First, it seeks to reduce the need for services by improving patients' health . The emphasis here is on wellness, health promotion, risk reduction, prevention and early detection.