The Orangutan Incident – Synergistic Teamwork Saves Money and Lives

One of the cases that New Frontier Group was asked to manage was a patient who was hiking in Indochina and was attacked and bitten by an orangutan. The patient was steered into an appropriate Indochina hospital where the case was managed by New Frontier Group with close coordination of the insurer and all treating clinicians at the hospital.

The patient needed to receive rabies shots. Rabies requires a 4-dose course with the first dose to be administered as soon as possible after exposure, and additional doses should be administered on days 3, 7, and 14 after the first vaccination. With the patient needing to travel from Indochina back to Hawaii in the United States, our care manager needed to ensure he was going to be able to get the additional 3 doses. Unfortunately, Hawaii is the only rabies free state in the US so there are no vaccines on the island.

Our care team worked with non-island US pharmacies and providers who coordinated with the Hawaiian pharmacy and provider who would be treating the patient to arrange proper doses, appointments, and treatments to be shipped to the island where vaccines were to be delivered. This synergistic care management approach saved time, money, and potentially the patient’s life. Without the full coordination among patient, carrier, providers, pharmacies, the case could have been detrimental for the patient.

The result of working one on one in close communication with the patient and with the family and all of the providers delivering care to the patient, created the best possible outcome for everyone. The patient was able to fly to Hawaii and receive the care he needed in the location where he was comfortable and supported by friends and family.