Client Name
Capella University
NURS-FPX6616: Ethical and Legal Consideration in Care Coordination
Instructor’s Name
August 2024
Assessing the Best Candidate for the Role
Care coordination serves as a major cornerstone in the provision of improved quality of clinical services to patients (Hempel et al., 2023). The care coordinator ensures that patients are receiving consented treatment along with effective technology-based practices. The role of care coordinator holds great significance in enhancing patient experience, improving clinical outcomes, and reducing the cost of healthcare resources. In this assessment, the role and responsibilities of the care coordinator for the Appalachian Region will be discussed along with the competencies and strategies of the care coordination, ethical compliances for the practice, laws application, and the involvement of stakeholders and interprofessional teams in enhanced care services will be identified.
Creating a Care Coordination Leadership Toolkit
Appalachia region is located in a mountainous area having small towns and limited access to healthcare facilities (Morrone et al., 2021). Older adults with type 2 diabetes are the most vulnerable group in this rural community who need effective care coordination to improve their health. They have major issues related to finances, transportation problems, and health education. Due to the lack of basic healthcare facilities, staff shortage, and limited professionals and specialists, this region needs a care coordinator to monitor their health situations and provide the best treatment for a better patient experience. The comprehensive responsibilities and skills are mentioned below for the role of care coordinators in the Appalachian region,
Job Description: Care Coordination Leader
An honest and passioned care coordinator is required for the Appalachian region who will be responsible for the improvement of healthcare services for the community including improved patient experience, patient-centered care facilities, enhanced health education, and ability to understand the challenges related to the role, effectively handle the cultural diversity of the region, careful consideration of the religious beliefs, alignment of practices with ethical and legal laws and regulations, competent to operate information technology resources, and expertise in managing the team coordination with the involvement of the stakeholders (Karam et al., 2021).
Responsibilities
The responsibilities of the leader as a care coordinator for the Appalachian Region are given below;
- Enhance the patient experience by implementing advanced technologies and decrease healthcare damages.
- Increase the coordination between the stakeholders and the interprofessional team to improve the effectiveness of the clinical facilities available for the patients.
- Implement patient-centered educational policies and programs to develop their understanding of self-management and healthcare management plans.
- Efficiency in determining the gaps in the practice and developing the strategies to reduce the lackings in the healthcare facilities provided to the patients.
- Effective communication with the patients and the stakeholders for their better understanding of healthcare assistance and treatment.
- Regularly monitoring and evaluating the patient feedback to identify the areas that need improvement and suggest enhanced measures accordingly.
Qualification
The qualifications required for the role of care coordination leader are given below;
- Bachelor or degree of Master in Nursing, Health of Public, or any other related field.
- Least of 1-year experience as a leader and 4 years experience as a care coordinator or case manager.
- Efficient communication skills and proficiency in quality improvement initiatives.
- Experience with telehealth services or electronic health records.
Interview Questions
The interview questions for the leadership role of care coordinator in the Appalachian region are given below;
- How would you ensure the implementation of ethical practices in a healthcare setting? Provide an example or scenario from your experience.
- How do you stay updated with the legal laws and regulations regarding care coordination? Can you elaborate on your experience with the advanced legal guidelines application in care coordination leadership?
- What strategies would you initiate to enhance the collaboration of stakeholders and professional teams in improving care coordination in the Appalachian region?
- What methods you would implement to evaluate the outcomes of the patient’s experience and the appropriate measures to improve that outcome?
- What is your mission for the enhancement of care coordination in the Appalachian region and how would to achieve that mission?
Candidates Knowledge Analysis Related to Ethical Guidelines
The candidate’s knowledge regarding ethical principles can only be determined by evaluating the understanding of ethical principles required for care coordination. The ethical rights of the patients need to be secured for better patient outcomes and enhancement of the healthcare assistance provided to the patients. (Olejarczyk & Young, 2024) The ethical principles related to care coordination include well-structured and informed consent and providing them the full right to make decisions regarding their healthcare needs and preferences.
The strategies that are implemented for the enhancement of care provided to the patients should be for the benefit of the patient and prevent any harm regarding patient safety (Redley et al., 2022). Reducing the risks associated with healthcare strategies and optimizing the patient experience. Equal treatment should be provided to each patient without any discriminating factor and proper justice should be followed in making decisions regarding the health care demands of the patient.The implementation of regulatory rules provided by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) needs to be properly understood and followed while providing health services to patients.
These laws ensure patient safety under standardized terms which are essential for every healthcare provider to follow and implement in their practices. Cultural diversity needs to be effectively administered in the strategies and policies developed to improve the patient experience (Nair & Adetayo, 2019). Informed consent is therefore essential in understanding the cultural demands of the patient along with the religious requirements that need to be considered in making decisions regarding any healthcare facility provided to the patient.
Care Coordination Improvement
The consideration of ethical guidelines in implementing any evidence-based practice is necessary to ensure equity and justice in the practice. It needs to be validated that the resources for evidence-based practice are focused on the safety of the patients and developed in compliance with the ethical principles (Varkey, 2021). The collaboration of interprofessional teams should also based on ethical guidelines by giving all the members the impression that they are equally respected and that their sharing of patient-centered approaches is important. This implication of the ethical principles creates a sense of being valued and considered by team members which leads to the satisfaction and well-being of the staff members.
Candidates Understanding of Care Coordination Laws
The laws are developed to keep the care providers informed and updated regarding the practices that are valid and help the patients improve their health (Shah et al., 2023). The care coordinator should know care coordination policies, healthcare legal laws and regulations, and their effectiveness in the practice. The HIPAA laws ensure the privacy and confidentiality of the health information of the patient (Tariq & Hackert, 2023). Patient health information is based on medical, societal, financial, or psychological history that is used to treat the patient effectively thus reducing healthcare disparities. In healthcare settings, the data of patients is shared between different healthcare professionals and disciplines to effectively monitor the health condition of the patients and provide effective, evidence-based treatment for improved patient outcomes.
Implementation of Laws in Care Coordination
The understanding of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) helps the staff in implementing healthcare strategies that are cost-efficient and aim at improving the experience of the patient (Levine et al., 2022). This act is responsible for preventing healthcare disparities by introducing laws that are effective in increasing positive patient outcomes, efficient management of chronic diseases, and professional staff skills. The Patient Self Determination Act (PSDA) protects the rights of patients by providing guidelines and laws regarding the care coordination strategies implemented for patient care. Care coordinators should understand the PSDA guidelines to ensure that patients are provided with sufficient information regarding the treatment, properly involved in the decision-making process, and given access to all the healthcare resources. These laws help in the reduction of healthcare disparities and prevent health risks linked to the lives of patients. Information security and confidentiality are also governed by the implementation of these laws in healthcare practice.
Candidates Knowledge of Stakeholders and Interprofessional Teams
Stakeholders and interprofessional teams are of key significance in ensuring the efficiency of care coordination activities along with the improvement of patient experience and health outcomes (McLaney et al., 2022). The mutual process of deciding on all the stakeholders and team members involved the in-depth understanding of patient health conditions and identification of evidence-based best practices for the proficient healthcare assistance availability and enhanced skill of the care providers. A care coordinator is responsible for determining the important stakeholders involved in the decision-making process including patient and family members, case managers, nursing staff, interdisciplinary teams, and the policymakers to clearly understand the needs of the patients and the type of assistance provided to the patients.
Interprofessional Teams in Care Coordination
The care coordinator should understand the roles and responsibilities of the members of the interdisciplinary team for better planning of collaboration and communication between the team members (Bendowska & Baum, 2023). Effective collaboration will result in efficient results that will be most suitable for improved patient outcomes and reduced health disparities as they share their expertise and opinions regarding the best healthcare practices and their results.
The collaboration not only leads to enhanced patient experience but also the well-being and satisfaction of the staff by giving them the impression that all the members are equally valued and respected. This will also increase the ethical efficiency of the care coordinator and the effectiveness of the care coordination strategies. The models that enhance the collaboration of interdisciplinary teams should also be proficiently understood by the healthcare providers and the care coordinators to efficiently implement them in the policies for better outcomes.
Data Usage Knowledge to Enhance Care
Data-driven outcomes are most effective in evaluating the effectiveness of any strategy or healthcare policy (Cascini et al., 2021). The intervention of technological tools and systems can be evaluated based on a comparison between the data before and after the intervention which will help the care providers and technicians understand the best practices to improve the outcomes. Care coordinators should be able to collect data from different resources, including medical reports, patient feedback, and information regarding the insurance policies and the mental conditions of the patient, analyze the gathered data, and then implement strategies according to the needs of the patients. The collected data must be culturally diverse and in compliance with the preferences of the Appalachian community.
Improvement in Quality
The care coordinator should be competent enough to use the data collected to improve the quality of the services provided to them along with the analysis of current healthcare strategies and technology systems. An understanding of quality metrics is necessary to identify the potential areas where most of the quality methods can be implemented along with the methodologies and different quality improvement cycles (Knudsen et al., 2019). The use of patients to effectively decide the needs and preferences of patients is one of the major applications of data gathered. The proficient analysis of the gaps in the practice through the data collected holds great significance in ensuring that the lackings can be administered effectively and the outcomes will be monitored regularly for a better understanding of the efficiency of the strategies applied to address gaps. The data usage should be ethical and keep the privacy and confidentiality of the information regarding patient health history secure.
NURS FPX 6616 Assessment 3 Conclusion
The Appalachian region is a rural community located in the mountainous areas having small towns (Morrone et al., 2021). Older adults with type 2 diabetes are more vulnerable because of the limited healthcare resources, insufficient access to basic care needs, and shortage of healthcare professionals. The need for a care coordinator is essential in this community to provide them with effective health services which will lead to a reduction in health disparities and improve positive patient outcomes. The care coordinator must be aware of the ethical and legal issues related to the healthcare practices for better development of clinical strategies based on key facts of enhancing the patient experience. Care coordinators should know the importance of collaboration between stakeholders and interprofessional teams in the process of making decisions related to the health of the patient. The understanding and implementation of care coordination laws in healthcare practices are important and allow the effective use of patient data through legal practices.
NURS FPX 6616 Assessment 3 References
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