What Gets Missed When Healthcare Is Too Fragmented?

Posted on by Joseph Gerard

A small plastic sign that says "Holistic"Written by Marchelle Abrahams

Lacy Mae Loos was a vivacious, bubbly 9-year-old. She loved playing with her friends. She was happy, funny, and smart. Then came the sudden change in her behavior, says her mother, Crystal Loos.

One minute her daughter was a fun, outgoing child; the next, she disappeared into herself. In July 2024, Loos told PEOPLE that Lacy Mae “completely changed overnight.” Lacy Mae was initially diagnosed with anxiety and depression and treated accordingly. But the diagnosis didn’t quite sit right with Loos.

After multiple hospital visits, the prognosis was always the same: anxiety and depression. Desperate for answers, she admitted Lacy Mae to a behavioral health unit. With nowhere to turn, she joined Facebook support groups and explained her predicament. And that’s when a few members suggested PANS/PANDAS, clinical conditions triggered by immune and inflammatory reactions to infections. 

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), one of the main symptoms is a sudden, dramatic onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Following extensive research, Loos was convinced that this is Lacy Mae’s affliction. The doctors refused to do tests. Sent from pillar to post, only a year later did she get a proper diagnosis from an Indiana-based specialist.

Crystal Loos advocated for her daughter when the system refused to. But a patient shouldn’t have to be coordinating their own healthcare. This is what happens when services are delivered across providers without shared information, clear accountability, or consistent follow-up. 

Why is Care Fragmented?

Maybe we should start with a question: What else does a patient need to stay well? It entails looking at the whole person.

When care is fragmented, it revolves around appointments, specialties, and systems instead of the patient’s overall healthcare journey. As a healthcare provider, you know that this could happen for various reasons.

It often starts at the doctor’s office, where patients may have to repeat their medical history each time they see a new provider. 

Care plans aren’t communicated. Lab results may be missed or incomplete. No one person or group takes ownership or accountability for the treatment support.

Unbundled and Rebundled Healthcare

The World Economic Forum (WEF) explains that most health systems serve institutions rather than patients. This hits hard for professionals in a revenue-based field.

The alternative? The WEF is unflinching in its stance. 

“The future needs the architecture of healthcare systems to be built around outcomes that matter: people living healthier, longer, at lower cost and using technology smartly to get there.” – The World Economic Forum.

Community health is cut off from facilities. Hospitals are siloed by department. The WEF suggests unbundling these stumbling blocks into functional components:

  • Discovery
  • Navigation
  • Diagnosis
  • Planning
  • Treatment
  • Monitoring and prevention

The Whole-Person Care Checklist 

Below is a practical mental checklist for healthcare professionals, case managers, and care teams. 

Oral Health: The Frequently Forgotten Piece 

Oral health can broaden care plans as it affects nutrition, pain, and quality of life.

Identifying a need for dental care is only step one. Patients still need to find and access an appropriate provider. This is where local SEO for dentists becomes relevant from a patient-access perspective. 

A dental practice’s local search visibility can help patients discover nearby providers. Most patients use search terms such as “dentist near me” or “emergency dentist”.

Growth Saloon notes that local SEO differs from general SEO because it focuses on visibility in local search and Google’s map results.

Physical Health: What Is Happening Beyond the Immediate Complaint? 

Don’t stop at presenting symptoms, particularly with older adults. They’re more likely to live with multiple chronic conditions and on several medications.

Primary care providers see this firsthand. Their jobs become harder when systems limit visibility into hospital stays, specialist recommendations, and medication changes.

The CDC advocates for value-based care models. When implemented well, they support prevention, coordination, and continuity.

Emotional Health: The Mental Health-Oral Health Connection 

The mental health angle shouldn’t be ignored, either. 

The latest findings published in Cureus show that mental and oral health are interlinked. Disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety impair oral health, resulting in dental caries, periodontitis, and tooth loss.

The study authors suggest that mental health and dental practitioners working together could produce integrated care models. Currently, this isn’t the case. Very seldom do psychiatrists and dentists share or collaborate on a care plan.

Social Needs: What Is Happening Outside the Clinic? 

Healthcare providers tend to skip the “small talk.” However, knowing what’s happening in a patient’s daily life could be a reason why they’re receiving fragmented care.

MedCity News reports that the U.S. loses about $150 billion annually to missed medical appointments. Oftentimes, that’s out of a patient’s control. In rural communities, access to transport is a rarity.

The publication says that a single missed appointment doesn’t register as a failure anywhere in the chain of providers. That’s because no one is accountable for knowing. Despite Medicaid NEMT being readily available, it isn’t utilized properly by those who need it the most.

Once again, there’s a disconnect between case managers and non-emergency medical transportation.

 

FAQs

What is fragmented healthcare?

Fragmented healthcare occurs when a patient’s care is divided between providers, departments, or systems that don’t share information or coordinate treatment.

Why is whole-person care important?

Whole-person care looks beyond a patient’s immediate diagnosis to consider physical health, mental well-being, oral health, and other factors that influence outcomes.

Why should oral health be part of whole-person care?

Oral health can affect nutrition, pain, quality of life, and mental well-being. Research also highlights connections between mental health conditions and oral health problems.

How can local SEO for dentists improve access to dental care?

Local SEO helps dental practices become more visible when people search for nearby services such as “dentist near me” or “emergency dentist.”

 

Stats: What Gets Missed When Healthcare Is Too Fragmented? 

Statistic What it Tells Us
$150 billion annually  The estimated cost of missed medical appointments in the U.S., according to MedCity News
6 stages  The WEF’s proposed healthcare architecture
2 healthcare disciplines  Mental health and dental professionals are two groups that could collaborate more closely to address the relationship between oral and mental health
Multiple chronic conditions  Older adults are more likely to manage several chronic conditions and medications simultaneously

What Now?

The system won’t change overnight. However, as a healthcare provider, you stand at the intersection between fragmented and holistic care.

It doesn’t take a team to implement the above suggestions. It can start with one person: you. 

Do that, and others will follow. And soon, the whole-person care checklist will become part of your entire team’s toolkit.

 

References

 

Author bio

Writer by day, dream catcher by night. Marchelle Abrahams cut her teeth in the infancy of the internet when the dial-up sound of the modem was more than a soundbite at a rave. Not a Millennial and not a Boomer, Marchelle is an in-betweener, making her a special breed of human.

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