As healthcare becomes increasingly complex due to growing fields of study and technological advances, each healthcare provider, whether specialists, primary care physicians, or even emergency room doctors, have limited time with each patient. The patient may receive different recommendations from each professional in order to produce a better lifestyle for that patient, however this care is not coordinated, so the patient becomes confused about how to proceed. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, care coordination means things to different people; no consensus definition has fully evolved, however through the combination of elements common to many organizations, the authors of the systemic review have developed a working definition: “Care coordination is the deliberate organization of patient care activities between two or more participants (including the patient) involved in a patient's care to facilitate the adequate delivery of health services. The organization of care involves the deployment of personnel and other resources necessary to carry out all the activities necessary for the care to the patient and, if often managed, by the exchange of information between participants responsible for different aspects of care" (Ahrq.gov, 2014) Although this definition is its creation it represents a rather disturbing fact; care coordination is not seen with the same definition from different eyes. Lack of care coordination creates high costs due to possible duplication of testing. According to the Tufts Health Plan, “one of the great challenges facing health care today is managing costs while improving the quality of outcomes,” so the lack of care coordination has not only quality but also financial consequences . The...... half of the article ......in hospital settings and by medical practice leaders, will examine effectiveness, through evidence-based data that emphasizes disease prevention and diagnosis early through the use of the right test. The monitoring will be done using the framework developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which serves “as an indexing system to map the landscape of available measures and measurement gaps for care coordination. The goal of this framework is to start from the top, achieving care objectives by adhering to patients' needs and preferences. Mechanisms range from communication to creating a proactive plan and are used to facilitate the goal of care coordination. Overall, this framework also serves to assist care coordination. To monitor it, healthcare professionals must verify that all these requirements are met.
tags