The Impact on Care Coordination by the APRN

Answer

• Impact on Care Coordination by the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse

  When patients visit health care facilities, they interact with an inter-professional team of physicians, specialist doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and social workers. Nurses play a vital role in care coordination or ensuring patient satisfaction, needs, and preferences for medical services are met. In the near future, Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) will be the leading providers of care coordination in various healthcare settings. In this paper, I discuss how APRNs implement healthcare coordination in a primary health care setting and the role of information technology and electronic health records in influencing patient care and coordination. I also analyze various factors, barriers, and challenges likely to be experienced when adopting these care coordination practices and explain how APRN advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels influence legislative practices. 

  Implementing Care Coordination in a Primary Healthcare Setting

  I currently work as a Nurse Practitioner (NP) in a hospital in rural Alhambra, Illinois. As a primary health care facility, the hospital provides services including annual physicals, routine vaccinations, laboratory testing and patient screening for conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, and treatment of conditions such as flu, urinary tract infections, and respiratory tract infections to pregnant mothers, children, youth, adults, and geriatrics. Through coordinated care, the various departments work efficiently to meet their patients' needs and improve their access to quality care.

  The team of advanced practice registered nurses ensures that patients receive quality care. We do this by sharing patient information amongst the various practitioners and ensuring that the various health providers collaborate to provide patients with healthcare plans that help achieve their medical needs (Williams et al., 2019). For instance, nurses ensure that laboratory technologists perform the prerequisite medical tests issued by physicians and that pharmacists dispense the proper medication. Besides, we communicate laboratory test results and established care plans with our patients and their families to ensure that they understand the treatment plans.

  Since the hospital has an inpatient facility, patients are admitted, prescribed medication, then discharged when their health status improves. APRNs monitor their progress upon discharge by conducting follow-up visits at their homes to ensure that they take their medications as prescribed and meet their milestones (Williams et al., 2019). In addition, we link and refer patients who require advanced treatment such as cancer treatment and kidney dialysis to the necessary personnel and specialist hospitals.

  Impact of Information Technology and Electronic Health Records on Care Coordination

  The hospital I work in recently implemented electronic health records (EHRs) to fast track the implementation of health care coordination. EHRs have facilitated the integration and facilitation of patient records and disbursement to the relevant health care providers. Computers enable us to track down each patient's medical history, tests and results, thus improving patient outcomes (Wani & Malhotra, 2018). We have also reduced the risk of medical errors since the information on adverse drug reactions is readily available at the touch of a button.    

  Integrating computers and information technology in disseminating health care has also enabled the facility to link patients with multiple specialists. EHRs also facilitate the fast dissemination of health care information when offering emergency care (Wani & Malhotra, 2018). For instance, a patient who had experienced an accident while at work was rushed into the hospital. By looking at his records from another hospital within the district, we determined that he was allergic to one of the anesthetic drugs; hence we chose a different drug for his operation.  

   

  Factors, Barriers, and Challenges towards the Adoption of Care Coordination

              The hospital has faced various barriers and challenges in adopting care coordination and meeting patient health care needs. For instance, there is no common format or standard for recording patient information. Since the various hospital departments have adopted unique standards, some patient information has to be duplicated (Reisman, 2017). In addition, electronic health records were a new technology, and the hospital incurred high costs while implementing it. The hospital also had to hire a team of specialists to run the EHRs department. The hospital also had to train the physicians and nurses on the importance of EHRs in coordinating patient care, and this was a relatively expensive venture (Reisman, 2017). However, the hospital received funding from the federal government to implement and maintain EHRs and train medical personnel on the importance of care coordination.

              Care coordination requires that the hospital retains patient records and shares this information with other health care providers. Patients believe that data sharing violates their privacy rights as outlined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). However, we inform them that this information is accessible only when the need to do so arises, such as in ambulatory care and emergency care settings.

  Impact of APRN Advocacy at Local, State, and Federal Levels on Legislative Practices

              APRNs influence policy and advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels (Knestrick & Russell, 2020). For instance, the APRNs advocated for hiring more nurses at the local level since we experienced burnout due to working longer than 10-hour shifts, thus putting our patients at risk of medical errors. We advocated for improved salaries and more scholarships for nurses who wished to further their education at the state level. As a result, the state of Illinois enacted laws that increased the scholarship fund. Since we noticed that some of the patients who rushed to hospitals have gunshot wounds, we championed the federal government to research the impact of gun violence on the dissemination of health care to our patients.

  Conclusion

  Advanced practice nurses are crucial in the process of health care coordination. They implement these strategies by sharing patient information with the various departments so that patients receive appropriate care. In addition, nurses are responsible for ensuring that their patients receive follow-up care upon discharge from a healthcare facility. By integrating electronic health records, APRNs can prevent maltreatment of patients since the required patient information is readily available. APRNs can advocate for laws that protect their interests at the local, state, and federal levels. These laws include increasing the nurse population in hospitals, better pay, and scholarships for nurses wishing to further their education.