Care Coordination and the Essential Role of Nurses
With the transformation of the healthcare system well underway, care coordination is now being highlighted by hospitals, health systems, and insurers as a key tool in improving patient health and satisfaction and controlling healthcare costs. Nurses’ response is “what took you so long?!”
Registered nurses’ contributions to care coordination have long been a core professional standard and competency for RNs. It is what nurses do. It is what we have always done. Whether developing care plans guided by patients' needs and preferences, educating patients and their families at discharge, doing their best to facilitate continuity of care for patients across settings and among providers, RNs make coordinated care possible.
Acknowledge RN Contributions and Pay for Care Coordination: Leveraging the Spotlight
With this new interest in care coordination, it is up to RNs to step up and draw attention to the integral part they play in improving patient care quality, satisfaction, and the effective and efficient use of healthcare resources.
The American Nurses Association knows that nurses serve an essential role in care coordination and to demand payment for these essential services as a distinct component of patient care. ANA supports the promotion and development of future care coordination models, as outlined in the association's full position statement.
Reference Links
- Ending the HIV Epidemic: Frontline Interventions Every Nurse Should Know
- Joint ANA/AAN Policy Agenda for Nurse-Lead Care Coordination
- ANA’s Framework for Measuring Nurses’ Contributions to Care Coordination
- Executive Summary of The Value of Nursing Care Coordination: A White Paper of the American Nurses Association.
- The Value of Nursing Care Coordination: A White Paper of the American Nurses Association
- The Value of Nursing Care Coordination: Annotated Bibliography
- ANA Executive Summary of Medicare Payment for Registered Nurse Services and Care Coordination
- ANA Medicare Payment for Registered Nurse Services and Care Coordination
- ANA Letter to HHS on Care Coordination in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)
ANA as an active partner with national healthcare quality organizations to push for officially capturing, documenting, and measuring nurses’ role in providing care coordination:
- National Quality Forum’s National Priorities Partnership – supporting the Department of Health and Human Services on setting national priorities and goals for HHS's National Quality Strategy.
- American Academy of Nursing 2012 policy brief on care coordination: The Imperative for Patient, Family, and Population Interprofessional Centered Approaches to Care Coordination and Transitional Care
- Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, Care Coordination Measures Atlas - The Atlas includes measures of patient and caregiver experiences with care coordination, as well as experiences of health care professionals and health system managers.