The ‘UCAPI’ formula adds Manzanares

UCAPI is already in Albacete, Guadalajara, Cuenca, Puertollano, Hellín, Ciudad Real, Valdepeñas, Talavera and Alcázar de San Juan, a formula to save hospital emergencies for chronic patients that is now arriving in Manzanares.

A formula that acts as a bridge between Primary and Hospital

Demographic factors such as the dispersion of the population in certain areas of the province of Ciudad Real or the high level of aging favor the creation of specific health devices that allow care for patients with comorbidities or chronic pathologies, whose level of complexity requires coordinated care. and continues by the public health system.

Within this framework, the Integrated Care Management of Manzanares has created the Care Continuity Unit between Primary Care and Internal Medicine (UCAPI) made up of an internist and a Nursing team that coordinate with the Primary Care teams for the Joint management of the complex chronic patient. This resource already works in Albacete, Guadalajara, Cuenca, Puertollano, Hellín, Ciudad Real, Valdepeñas, Talavera de la Reina and Alcázar de San Juan.

The creation of this device allows all those involved (Primary School Team and Hospital Team) to act proactively in order to prevent the patient from clinical decompensation that may imply repeated visits to the Emergency Department, as well as hospital readmissions.

Cardiovascular diseases and COPD

Cardiovascular diseases and specifically heart failure, together with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, due to their prevalence, are the most common processes that are treated at the UCAPI, as well as patients with anemia, particularly iron deficiency, which worsens the base processes of a chronic patient. In the case of elderly people, anemia is a common process and more so if there are kidney diseases.

This is how the UCAPI referents at the Virgen de Altagracia Hospital in Manzanares describe it, the internist Bárbara Nieto-Sandoval and the Nursing team made up of Milagros Alhambra, María Bolaños and Ana Rosa Sánchez Maroto.

Specifically, for the implementation of this care circuit, located in the Multipurpose Unit of the Virgen de Altagracia Hospital, a referral protocol has been designed in which the criteria of the standard patient are established, as well as a consultation line between professionals Primary and Hospital Care that facilitates immediate care.

At the service of Primary Care

The UCAPI is a “direct line of communication that the Primary Care specialists have with the hospital’s Internal Medicine specialists”, explained Dr. Nieto-Sandoval.

The circuit is activated when the complex chronic patient goes to their health center due to some type of decompensation of their underlying pathology and it is the Primary Care professionals who contact UCAPI to expedite the referral and so that the patient can be stabilized in the unit , thus avoiding possible repeated admissions or multiple attentions in the ER.

patient follow-up

At the UCAPI, he pointed out, “high-resolution outpatient care is carried out in the same morning and once the patient returns home, telephone follow-up by the Primary Care assistance team begins.” Thus, waiting is avoided or that the patient goes to the ER repeatedly due to decompensation.

In short, this type of care improves the quality of life of people with chronic pathologies that require continuous monitoring, and of the people who care for them, added Milagros Alhambra, who highlighted the importance of Nursing in addressing chronicity .