TY - JOUR
T1 - Coordinating Care Across VA Providers and Settings
T2 - Policy and Research Recommendations from VA’s State of the Art Conference
AU - Cordasco, Kristina M.
AU - Frayne, Susan M.
AU - Kansagara, Devan
AU - Zulman, Donna M.
AU - Asch, Steven M.
AU - Burke, Robert E.
AU - Post, Edward P.
AU - Fihn, Stephan D.
AU - Klobucar, Thomas
AU - Meyer, Laurence J.
AU - Kirsh, Susan R.
AU - Atkins, David
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Geraldine McGlynn and Karen Bossi in organizing the SOTA conference, and for administrative support in the preparation of this manuscript. We would also like to thank the members of the SOTA workgroup who contributed to formulating these recommendations, but did not participate in the writing of this manuscript: Cicely Burrow-McElwain, LCSW-C; June Callasan, MSN, RN, CCM; Angela Denietolis, MD; and Laura Taylor, MSW, LSCSW.
Funding Information:
Funding This work was funded by the VA Office of Research and Development, Health Services Research and Development.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Society of General Internal Medicine (This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply).
PY - 2019/5/15
Y1 - 2019/5/15
N2 - Delivering well-coordinated care is essential for optimizing clinical outcomes, enhancing patient care experiences, minimizing costs, and increasing provider satisfaction. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) has built a strong foundation for internally coordinating care. However, VA faces mounting internal care coordination challenges due to growth in the number of Veterans using VA care, high complexity in Veterans’ care needs, the breadth and depth of VA services, and increasing use of virtual care. VA’s Health Services Research and Development service with the Office of Research and Development held a conference assessing the state-of-the-art (SOTA) on care coordination. One workgroup within the SOTA focused on coordination between VA providers for high-need Veterans, including (1) Veterans with multiple chronic conditions; (2) Veterans with high-intensity, focused, specialty care needs; (3) Veterans experiencing care transitions; (4) Veterans with severe mental illness; (5) and Veterans with homelessness and/or substance use disorders. We report on this workgroup’s recommendations for policy and organizational initiatives and identify questions for further research. Recommendations from a separate workgroup on coordinating VA and non-VA care are contained in a companion paper. Leaders from research, clinical services, and VA policy will need to partner closely as they develop, implement, assess, and spread effective practices if VA is to fully realize its potential for delivering highly coordinated care to every Veteran.
AB - Delivering well-coordinated care is essential for optimizing clinical outcomes, enhancing patient care experiences, minimizing costs, and increasing provider satisfaction. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) has built a strong foundation for internally coordinating care. However, VA faces mounting internal care coordination challenges due to growth in the number of Veterans using VA care, high complexity in Veterans’ care needs, the breadth and depth of VA services, and increasing use of virtual care. VA’s Health Services Research and Development service with the Office of Research and Development held a conference assessing the state-of-the-art (SOTA) on care coordination. One workgroup within the SOTA focused on coordination between VA providers for high-need Veterans, including (1) Veterans with multiple chronic conditions; (2) Veterans with high-intensity, focused, specialty care needs; (3) Veterans experiencing care transitions; (4) Veterans with severe mental illness; (5) and Veterans with homelessness and/or substance use disorders. We report on this workgroup’s recommendations for policy and organizational initiatives and identify questions for further research. Recommendations from a separate workgroup on coordinating VA and non-VA care are contained in a companion paper. Leaders from research, clinical services, and VA policy will need to partner closely as they develop, implement, assess, and spread effective practices if VA is to fully realize its potential for delivering highly coordinated care to every Veteran.
KW - Veterans Health
KW - case management
KW - health services
KW - integrated delivery systems
KW - organization and management
KW - research
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U2 - 10.1007/s11606-019-04970-3
DO - 10.1007/s11606-019-04970-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 31098966
AN - SCOPUS:85066023010
SN - 0884-8734
VL - 34
SP - 11
EP - 17
JO - Journal of General Internal Medicine
JF - Journal of General Internal Medicine
ER -