The
Xavier Leadership Center (XLC), the
Xavier University School of Nursing and
Catholic Health Partners—Ohio’s largest health care organization—have partnered to create the Nurse Care Coordinator Program (NCCP), the first of its kind regionally and one of the first in the country.
The program is responding to a national trend in health care that is shifting toward patient-centered care and addresses the issues of poor communication across the silos of health care delivery that have been increasing since the 1980s.
“A care coordinator is at the core of the communication between the specialists and makes sure the patient’s care is holistically being administered,” says Sue Schmidt, director of Xavier’s School of Nursing. “The typical nurse in a hospital is more task-oriented and does not do risk management as well as work across systems.”
Lynne McCabe, RN, director of Community Care Coordination Programs for Catholic Health Partners, heard about Xavier University from a staff member/care coordinator who had a positive experience while getting her master’s degree in nursing at Xavier. McCabe was already looking to start a training or certificate program for her nursing staff, but found a similar program offered on the East coast to be cost-prohibitive and far away.
Using knowledge and experience acquired through implementing a care coordination program for Catholic Health Partners, McCabe knew that partnering locally would be a better solution. The program began at the beginning of 2014 at the XLC with 15 nurse care coordinators and one dietician.
Mike Leavy, associate director of the XLC, and one of Schmidt’s and McCabe’s co-developers, says, “This is an innovative program for the region, which will enable participants to be leaders and pioneers in serving the needs of all stakeholders in the rapidly changing health care environment. Our goal is to graduate our first cohort in the spring then continue to expand the program in the community and the region.”
By Mike Sarason
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