Care coordination in the health-care service delivery: an elderly care perspective

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between patient-centricity, care coordination and delivery of quality care for older people with multiple chronic conditions. Care coordination is defined as a process where physicians, nurses and allied professionals work together to clarify responsibilities, care objectives, treatment plans and discharge plans for delivery of unified care. Patient-centricity is defined as an approach of delivering quality care to patients that focuses on creating a positive experience for them.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature review was used to identify measures of care coordination and then partial least square structural equation modeling was used to assess interrelationship among patient-centricity, measures of care coordination and delivery of quality care.

Findings

Results reveal that care coordinated pathways consist of IT-enabled coordination, interprofessional teamwork, information sharing and facilitative infrastructure requirements and are influenced by patient-centricity. These are deliberate requisites for delivering of quality care. Results of this study present a validated model of care coordination for older people, which may be further explored to refine the concept of care coordination.

Practical implications

Based on these results, practitioners may develop an overarching strategy to deliver seamless care and to achieve better health outcomes. Measures of care coordination may be used as a performance benchmarking tool and will also help in the process mapping of hospitals.

Social implications

This paper highlights how patient-centricity may be achieved by focusing on coordinated care processes. This understanding may help in designing processes, which in turn deliver health as a social good in an effective manner.

Originality/value

Results of this study present such a validated model for care coordination, which can be used by researchers.

Citation

Srivastava, S. and Prakash, G. (2019), "Care coordination in the health-care service delivery: an elderly care perspective", Journal of Indian Business Research, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 388-404. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIBR-09-2018-0235