Care coordination agreements in the Veterans Healthcare Administration

Journal of Integrated Care,Volume 25, Issue 3, July 2017. Purpose The Veteran ’s Health Administration (VHA) has promoted Specialty Care Neighborhoods (SCN) to enhance the coordination of services between primary and specialty care. Care coordination agreements (CCAs) were included as a critical element in the SCN program. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of these documents in the successful implementation of SCNs. Design/methodology/approach Content, quality, and perceived usefulness of CCAs from 19 SCN sites was evaluated. CCA content was defined as the presence or absence of eight key components: contact information, process for urgent consults, process for e-consults, content of consults, primary and specialty care responsibilities, expected response time, discharge criteria, and review criteria. CCA quality was based on a qualitative assessment of CCA content; and perceived usefulness was based on a qualitative assessment of interview re sponses from CCA users. CCA characteristics were compared to SCN implementation levels using descriptive statistics. SCN implementation level was defined and measured by VHA Specialty Care Services. Findings Participating sites with medium-high or high SCN implementation levels had CCAs with more key components and of higher quality than sites with medium-low to medium SCN implementation levels. Perceived usefulness of CCAs was not associated with implementation level. Research limitations/implications Since this s...

Source: Journal of Integrated Care - May 19, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research