Care Coordination: A Priority for Health Reform

Care coordination is one of the priorities to transform the health care system (Institute of Medicine). Nurses have taken on the central role in care coordination for decades, and are now being recognized for expertise in care coordination. Attention has focused on nursing models that use care coordination and report outcomes. Nursing care coordination models emphasize patient education, engagement of patients and families in prevention, self-care, and adoption of health information technology to improve access to information. Policy recommendations needed to enhance care coordination include the following: (a) facilitate better information transfer with wider use of information technology, (b) include Nurse Practitioners (NPs) as equal practitioners in reimbursement, (c) create incentives to improve coordination of care, (d) reward the use of evidence-based practices, and (e) advocate for better care coordination models that include interdisciplinary teams and greater health system integration. Keywords care coordination, health reform, chronic illness Americans are living longer and the number of older adults in the United States is rapidly increasing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2003) predicts tha