Care coordination has been called the "missing link in healthcare." Now the Registered Nurse Ambulatory Care Coordinator Association has formed the first national organization to support nurses and other population health management professionals in care coordinator roles.
Here's another sign that care coordination is gaining traction in the healthcare industry: Care coordinators at Ohio-based Mercy Health have formed what it says is the first national organization to support nurses in care coordinator roles and members of population health management teams.
The new, non-profit Registered Nurse Ambulatory Care Coordinator Association (RNACCa) aims to "support and strengthen evidence-based practice among nurse care coordinators and other population health management professionals," according to its website.
"We've already done some of the legwork; why not share it?" one of the association's co-founders, Teaera Roland, MSN, RN, population health nurse care coordinator for Catholic Health Partners, told me. "We want to get nurses the education that they need to provide the education and tools that the patients need."
Although care coordination is a relative newcomer in the healthcare world, the stats supporting its value are already making a big impact. For example, Mercy Health's nurse care coordinators helped drive a 51% reduction in hospital admissions, a 35% reduction in readmissions, and a 37% reduction in emergency department visits over the course of a yearlong pilot.
Roland says she and her team have learned that it's worth it to spend time upfront with patients, getting to know them and understanding the very personal barriers that they face when it comes to staying healthy.
"We've done studies," she says. "Patient outcomes are improved when you take that one-on-one time."
It's not only Mercy Health's studies that point to the benefits of care coordination. In June 2012, the ANA released a white paper called "The Value of Nursing Care Coordination," which examined recent reports and studies about care coordination and the role of RNs.
For example, one study cited found that care coordination leads to better care at a lower cost, particularly for populations with multiple health and social needs.
Care coordination also got a boost from a new Medicare rule that will pay nurses when they help patients make the successful transition from hospitals to other settings. The rule calls for paying RNs for services that aim to manage patients' transitions from hospitals to other settings and to prevent complications and conditions that cause hospital readmissions. It creates new payment codes for care coordination activities performed by RNs.
"Other organizations are catching onto care coordination," Roland says. "This is the missing link in healthcare."
In the 2012 HealthLeaders Media Industry Survey, 30% of CEOs said care coordination is their greatest strategic challenge. Roland says that the new RNACCa aims to ease that challenge for people and organizations that want to give care coordination a try.
When she first started her work in care coordination, Roland says she "learned that I didn't know nearly as much as I thought I did," even though she was a master's prepared nurse with a lot of critical care experience.
Instead of starting out without a lot of direction, like Roland did, new care coordinators can look to the RNACCa for guidance, helping them skip the trial-and-error phase and letting them "get down to the nitty-gritty" of care coordination right away.
The RNACCa will provide educational materials for nurses and help for identifying resources for patients. It also plans to host a conference within the next several months and has partnered with Cincinnati's Xavier University to provide a certification program in population health management starting later this year. The program will count toward a Master's of Science in Nursing. Roland also says that the RNACCa would love to partner with other organizations, such as the ANA, to expand.
Nurse care coordinators' day in the limelight has arrived, Roland believes. "I really think that this is the time," she says. "Nurses have the opportunity, and the tools, and the backing to change healthcare."
Alexandra Wilson Pecci is an editor for HealthLeaders.
