Section 3.

5 Design

Establishing the Care Team: Roles and

Communications
This tool provides an overview of the new roles of health care professionals in a community-
based care coordination (CCC) program, and describes why communication among the health
care team is vitally important for patient safety and satisfaction, as well as for satisfactory
working relationships among team members. It includes links to numerous resources to help
facilitate a culture that supports team communication and collaboration.

Time required to review tool and resources: 3 hours

Time required to implement strategies: 10 hours over 6 months
Suggested other tools: Approaches to Patient Communications; Workflow and Process
Analysis/ Redesign/ Optimization for CCC tool suite

Table of Contents
Current State of the Health Care Team ........................................................................................... 2
Traditional Health Care Team Roles and Relationship to Patients................................................. 3
Health Care Professionals’ Roles in Community-Based Care Coordination:
Communications and Collaboration ............................................................................................... 4
Care Coordinator and Case Manager Roles .................................................................................... 4
Other Health Care Professional Role Enhancements...................................................................... 5
Importance of Creating a Patient-Centric Community-Based Health Care Team .......................... 6
Team Communications in Community-Based Care Coordination ................................................. 7
Resources Available for Establishing a Culture to Support Communication and Collaboration ... 7

Section 3.5 Design–Establishing the Care Team: Roles and Communications - 1

Current State of the Health Care Team
The “health care team” has traditionally been a loose connection of an ever-growing number of
health care professionals and entities, working quite autonomously within a hierarchical structure
of handoffs. Physicians directed care and all others were subservient to them. Public health and
community service organizations were very distant, and often were not considered part of
patient’s health care support system. Patients were not always at the center of the health care
team, and in fact often were not considered a part of the team at all. To use an analogy from
business and industry, they were essentially “customers” or “products” even though these terms
were never used. There certainly was no care coordinator to “connect the dots,” to guide or help
navigate the patient and patient’s family/caregivers through the health care system. Figure 1
illustrates this state of affairs.

Figure 1. Current State of Health care Team

Section 3.5 Design–Establishing the Care Team: Roles and Communications - 2

Traditional Health Care Team Roles and Relationship to Patients
The following table describes the health care professionals’ roles in this traditional environment.
Emergency Department
Primary Care Home
and Inpatient Care
Primary care provider Doctors Patient (and family)
Nurse Nurses Home health nurse
Receptionist (Many) other professionals Community services
Case manager Public health
Patient Patient’s family Primary care provider
Patient Specialty physicians

 The primary care provider’s role has been to provide diagnosis and treatment
recommendations, typically with rather limited nursing service support, and with the
receptionist positioned as the gatekeeper. The patient has been relatively “distant” from
the provider in this scenario, typically not participating in shared decision making.
Similarly, the provider, nurse, and receptionist have had very distinct roles and have had
little, if any, collaboration in health care decision making – either among themselves or
with the patient.
 In the emergency department and inpatient care environments, there are many doctors
whose roles have been to diagnose and direct treatment. There are many nurses, other
nursing staff, and other health care professionals who (directly and indirectly) administer
to the patient. There is often case manager (who may go by several designations, such as
utilization manager, DRG coordinator, and others) who serves as the primary gatekeeper,
determining the level of care the patient’s insurance benefits permit, and coordinating in
this regard with the patient’s family. In this scenario, the patient is even more distant
from the locus of health care decision making.
 Once at home, the patient is essentially in charge of his or her health destiny – often with
little understanding or clarity surrounding what and how to perform in this new role. In
the past, there was no one to provide guidance or to help coordinate basic community
services needed to support important health needs. If there was home health care
provision, it was often at a medical assistant, not registered nurse, level and there were
very specific rules and limitations surrounding what services could be provided. Public
health nurses or social workers may have provided some assistance in helping patients
get community resources and directing them to financial resources. Primary and specialty
care providers were distant to the patient. There was minimal or no follow up from them,
and often patients did not sense they could reach out to them for basic health care needs
within their homes.

Section 3.5 Design–Establishing the Care Team: Roles and Communications - 3

Health Care Professionals’ Roles in Community-based Care Coordination:
Communications and Collaboration
To create an environment in which the patient is the focal point and health care professionals
coordinate with the patient and collaborate with one another, such as illustrated in Figure 2,
health care professionals roles may need to be seen in a different light and new communication
skills may need to be learned.

Figure 2. Community-Based Care Coordination

Communications and Collaboration Model

Care Coordinator and Case Manager Roles

A new role within this emerging model is that of the community-based care coordinator (CC).
The care coordinator works in collaboration and continuous partnership with chronically ill,
“high-risk” patients and their families/caregivers, primary care providers, specialists, hospitals
and ED providers and staff, public health agencies, and community health care resources in a
team approach to:
 Promote timely access to appropriate care
 Increase utilization of preventive care
 Reduce ED utilization and hospital readmissions
 Increase comprehension through culturally and linguistically appropriate education
 Create and promote adherence to a care plan, developed in coordination with the patient
and the patient/family
 Increase continuity of care by managing relationships with tertiary care providers,
transitions-in-care, and referrals

Section 3.5 Design–Establishing the Care Team: Roles and Communications - 4

  Increase patients’ ability for self-management and shared decision-making
 Provide medication reconciliation
 Connect patients to relevant community resources
The care coordinator’s goal is to enhance patient and family health and well-being, increase
patient satisfaction, and reduce health care costs. The care coordinator role may seem to overlap
that of the case manager. Although these terms are sometimes used synonymously, for purposes
of community-based care coordination, they are distinguished. An important step in care team
communication is to ensure ongoing collaboration between the case manager and care
coordinator if these functions are performed by different persons, as is often the case.

The following table describes the distinct roles of the case manager and care coordinator.

Case Manager Community-Based Care Coordinator

Objective Ensures patients are prepared for next Ensures patients get needed care
care setting services to keep health stable and reduce
risk of further expensive care services
Focus Individual patients Population of patients
Locus Within one health care delivery Coordinates health-related needs for
organization patients at home
Care planning Coordinates transitioning the care plan Helps patients follow their care plans
from one setting to a next setting
Timeline Upon admission to a care setting Across all care settings for the duration of
through discharge from a care setting time that the patient’s quality and cost of
care is at risk
Collaboration Case manager works during the health Care coordinator works with patient prior
and care encounter with the patient/family to and after any given health care
communication and next level of care. Case manager encounter. Care coordinator should be
needs should advise care coordinator of advised that patient is in a health care
potential care coordination needs in the delivery setting and work with case
home setting. manager to begin planning for return to
home setting.

Other Health Care Professional Role Enhancements

The communication and collaboration fostered in a community-based care coordination
environment necessitates a review of all health care professionals’ roles. Very often it has been
found that individuals in given health care roles are not working to the level of their
qualifications or credentials. With a bit more guidance, reinforced training and feedback, many
health care professionals could be more helpful to patients and improve workflow and
productivity within a health care setting.
For example:
 Reception staff have often taken on the role of gatekeeper, primarily to preserve the
physicians’ schedules. They could easily take on additional tasks, such as checking on
whether patients need routine lab work before a visit, reminding them of certain
preventive service needs such as immunizations, asking them to bring their medications

Section 3.5 Design–Establishing the Care Team: Roles and Communications - 5

 or other health diary to the visit, and instructing them on logging onto the office portal to
enter history of the present illness. These steps enable the patient and the office to be
better prepared for the visit, allowing more time for communications with the patient.
Some offices believe such communications violate HIPAA rules – but the receptionist is
as much a part of the health care provider setting as any other staff member and should be
so trained and treated. With recent changes in CLIA regulations to further support patient
engagement1, patients now have access to lab results as soon as they are available,
ensuring more informed communications.
 Nursing staff, especially in provider offices, often include persons with a range of
credentials. But all have specific skill sets that should be fully utilized. For example,
unless clinically indicated, the blood pressure taken by the certified medical assistant
during patient rooming should not have to be taken again by a registered nurse or
physician. As another example and depending on state licensure laws, many credentialed
nursing staff can manage prescription refills. Some physicians have been hesitant to have
nursing staff engage very much with the patient, again citing confidentiality concerns.
But the more patients understand that all staff within the office, including receptionists,
nurses and others, are part of their care team the more coordinated their care can be, with
the side benefit of office practice improvement.
 Physicians have long been recognized as not being the best communicators. A large body
of current research, however, addresses the importance of effective, empathic physician-
patient communication. Current research confirms that improved physician-patient
communication improves patient compliance with their treatment regimen leading to
better outcomes, and also highlights the need for continuing efforts to improve physician
empathy, communication style, and tone of voice. Dr. Egener, writing in the Journal of
General Internal Medicine, describes a number of ways to address physicians’ “impaired
communication skills.”2
 Pharmacists play a key role in medication management. North Carolina pharmacists
have spearheaded the creation of networking pharmacist programs, with the goal to
minimize patient attrition (going without a needed medication) and to minimize to the
extent possible prescriber and pharmacy disruption.3 Despite the much more widespread
availability of drug information and patient-specific medication lists, the pharmacist’s
role in understanding the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the ever-
increasingly powerful drugs is invaluable to physicians.

Importance of Creating a Patient-Centric Community-Based Health Care Team

Creating more of a team environment, supported by enhancing the role of each individual and
ensuring communications among individual team members, profoundly impacts patient safety,
quality of outcomes, patient satisfaction, and health care professionals’ job satisfaction.
Work done by the Department of Defense and the Agency for Health care Quality and Research
(AHRQ) has found that ineffective team communication is the root cause for nearly two-thirds of
all medical errors.4 An Institute of Medicine Report on Health Professions and Training has
identified that doctors and other health professionals lack adequate training in communication
skills, such as open-ended inquiry, reflective listening and empathy, as a way to respond to the
unique needs, values, and preferences of individual patients.5

Section 3.5 Design–Establishing the Care Team: Roles and Communications - 6

For example, studies of clinician-patient visits reveal that patients are often not provided the
opportunity or time to tell their story during the history-taking component of a visit with their
physician. As a result, patients perceive that what they are saying is not important and leads to
patients being reticent to offer additional information.6 Not surprisingly, research bears out that
nearly three-quarters of all malpractice claims arise out of a physician-patient communication
problem.7 A study funded by the Commonwealth Fund found that a quarter of patients report
they did not follow their clinician’s advice because they disagreed with the recommended
treatment, were concerned about cost, found the instructions too difficult to follow, felt it was
against their personal beliefs, or reported they did not understand what they were supposed to
do.8 Very importantly, job satisfaction and nurse turnover9 improve when communication about
tasks and responsibilities is done well and a culture of mutual support is cultivated.10

Team Communications in Community-Based Care Coordination

There is a wealth of research data that supports the benefits of effective communication and
health outcomes for patients and health care teams. It has been observed that the connection a
patient feels with his or her clinician can ultimately improve his or her health, mediated through
participation in care, adherence to treatment, and patient self-management. Within the context of
community-based care coordination – where the health care team is much broader than doctor-
nurse-patient – attention to team building, recognizing each team member’s role, and enhancing
communication skills is even more vital. Community-based care coordination is characterized
by a broad spectrum of team members whose roles and responsibilities with respect to a patient
shift over time and by location of patient.
Collaboration in health care has been defined as “health care professionals assuming
complementary roles and cooperatively working together, sharing responsibility for problem-
solving, and making decisions to formulate and implement plans for patient care.”11 There is
growing evidence of the need for ongoing collaboration, defined even more broadly now to
include, “individualized evidence-based treatment plans, care coordination, health status
monitoring, coaching in self-management, and promotion of community-based services.”12
Resources Available for Establishing a Culture to Support Communication and
Collaboration
The following links provide tools, videos, PowerPoint presentations, and other materials to take
practical steps in establishing a culture to support team communication and collaboration. See
also Approaches to Patient Communications in this toolkit.

Care Team Communication Strategies

 Huddles – Short, daily sessions for the care team to rapidly prepare for managing the
day’s patients. Huddles should be conducted in stand-up mode, for not more than five
minutes, generally at the start of a day. Topics include anything from adjustments to
workflow, crisis management, patient access issues, and special care challenges for
certain patients. Some clinics will document these huddles, often annotating patient-
specific issues in their EHR or on an agenda that may be a printout from a registry or
schedule for the day. Others use a white board to note agenda items throughout the day
for the next day’s discussion. A photograph of this can be taken for documentary

Section 3.5 Design–Establishing the Care Team: Roles and Communications - 7

  evidence of performing the huddle. If the office is seeking NCQA recognition as a
patient-centered medical home, documentation should be kept as evidence of conducting
such huddles. Additional information and examples are available at:
http://www.aafp.org/fpm/2007/0600/p27.html.
 Team meetings – Formal meetings to make organizational decisions. These are more
formal meetings than huddles and usually address changes in policies or procedures,
plans for conducting special events, or new information on health care practices. Training
might be included in this category of communication. Documentation should include an
agenda, minutes, and/or keeping a copy of the training materials and attendees.
Additional information is available at:
https://www.aamc.org/members/gfa/faculty_vitae/148582/team_meetings.html
 Virtual rounds – Educational programs on important clinical topics delivered via the
web. These should be attended by all members of the applicable care team. For example,
if a new procedure, protocol, drug, or other clinical information being delivered addresses
an orthopedic issues, the orthopedists and associated nurses, physical therapists,
pharmacist, and others as applicable should attend. Some of these offer continuing
education for physicians and/or nurses, and usually require some form of post-test or quiz
to be completed and potentially submitted to the web host. Additional information and
examples are available at: http://mghcme.org/page/virtual_grand_rounds_series
 Conducting a family conference – Health care professionals, including the care
coordinator and potentially community service representatives, meet with a patient and/or
patient’s family, often to discuss options for treatment, to help the patient and family
prepare for a significant change in lifestyle, or to face a life-changing event. It is
important to prepare carefully to ensure a successful conference. Important tools that are
complementary to such conferences are shared decision making and patient self-
management (see Patient Empowerment below). For additional information on how
health care professionals can prepare for a family conference, see:
http://depts.washington.edu/oncotalk/learn/modules/Modules_06.pdf. For information on
preparing patients and family for a team conference, see:
http://www.whca.org/directory/all-about-care-conferences/

Communication Strategies for Health Care Professionals

 TeamSTEPPS Quick Facts – Tools for complete, clear, brief, and timely
communications among health care professionals (using tools such as SBARQ, CUS,
Two Challenge Rule, Call Outs, and Check Backs). When a care coordinator, nurse,
pharmacist, specialist, or other health care professional needs to have a discussion with
the primary care provider or another health care professional concerning a specific patient
care event, it is important to be as concise, specific, and focused as possible. Tips for
effective communications using these tools are available at:
http://www.med.unc.edu/ihqi/files/teamstepps/implementation-
package/TeamSTEPPS%20QuickFacts%20(4).pdf
 Guidelines for nurse communications with physicians using SBAR – a framework for
(primarily) nurses to brief physicians on their patients. The framework suggests a method
for ensuring that the situation is fully described, background information is provided,
assessment that the nurse has made is delivered, and recommendations are offered. Some

Section 3.5 Design–Establishing the Care Team: Roles and Communications - 8

 add a “Q” (SBARQ) to follow up with questions. Additional information is available at :
http://lifewithjess.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/sbar-guidelines-kaiser-permanente.pdf

Overcoming Behavioral Barriers between Patients and Staff and Among Staff
This has been an important focal point of recent industry discussions. Such behavioral barriers
include:
 Overcoming disruptive behavior (which may be defined as any conduct that interferes
with the effective operation of the organization, or suggests a threat to organizational
personnel or to patient care). It is important to note that behavior that is unusual,
unorthodox, or different is not alone sufficient to classify it as disruptive. Additional
information on spotting and overcoming disruptive behavior is available at:
http://www.med.umich.edu/umhshr/doc/Disruptive_Behavior_Toolkit.pptx
 Overcoming gender barriers, where certain roles are often heavily populated by certain
genders. Issues with both genders are addressed in:
http://leannecarey713.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/gender-communication-barriers-there-
is-no-crying-in-baseball/
 Advancing diversity in health care, both with respect to health care professionals who
often come from many different parts of the world, and to patients who live in the
“melting pot” of the US. Good ideas are offered at:
http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/issues/news/Article/244/Why_Diversity_Matters_in_th
e_Health_Professions
 Overcoming generational barriers are increasingly evident in health care as more
people continue to work well beyond the traditional retirement age. The American
Hospital Association recently addressed the issue of four generations of health care
professionals now actively involved in delivering care at:
http://www.hhnmag.com/display/HHN-news-
article.dhtml?dcrPath=/templatedata/HF_Common/NewsArticle/data/HHN/Magazine/20
13/Jan/0113HHN_coverstory

Patient Empowerment
Patient empowerment has many aspects to it. The key focus is to encourage such empowerment
as a means to bring the patient to the forefront of their health care, and their decision making and
responsibility for treatment and wellness. The following are several strategies:
 Shared decision making refers to communications with patients to enable them to make
informed choices about what is best for their personal situation. (See Shared Decision
Making in this Toolkit.) A video of the Stillwater Medical Group discussing the benefits
of shared decision making is available at:
http://www.informedmedicaldecisions.org/what-is-shared-decision-making/
 Patient self-management is even broader than shared decision making. It is the process
to help patients move from the care delivery system where health care professionals
provide many of the care management tasks to being independent in taking medications,
keeping provider appointments, making appropriate lifestyle changes, and ultimately
being responsible for their own health and wellness. (See Patient Self-Management in
this Toolkit.) Specific steps are also described at: http://www.aafp.org/practice-

Section 3.5 Design–Establishing the Care Team: Roles and Communications - 9

 management/pcmh/patient-care/educate-self-management.html A set of tools for patient
self-management is also available at:
http://www.ihi.org/resources/pages/tools/selfmanagementtoolkitforclinicians.aspx
 Motivational interviewing is technique to support patient self-management by being
supportive and encouraging. Although the phrase “motivational interviewing” is
proprietary, the technique of such an interviewing style is universal. (See Supportive
Communications in this Toolkit.) An example of an interview is also available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm-rJJPCuTE

Clarity on Roles, Authority and Responsibility

This is an important element of communications for all parties to the communication. In addition
to the following specific traits identified below, see Approaches to Patient Communications in
this Toolkit:
 Leadership is an important trait – but should be focused on taking leadership in any
situation, not just heading up an organization. For example, if there are issues with any
aspect of care coordination, the care coordinator must take the lead in finding resolution.
The Joint Commission offers an excellent primer on leadership for all health care
professionals: http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/wp_leadership_standards.pdf
 Staff enablement refers to encouraging all staff to be “masters of their own destiny” and
to assume leadership roles with respect to their own work. The following is an excellent
publication on such enablement:
http://www.clinicalmicrosystem.org/assets/materials/publications/JQIPart8.pdf
 Interdisciplinary teamwork is at the crux of any form of health care, but is often more
challenging when it must be accomplished in the community with the patient at home
rather than in an organized provider arrangement. The following resource offers
strategies for working together in teams in such an environment:
http://dcahec.gwumc.edu/education/session3/models.html
 High functioning teams refer to the fact that teams who excel do so because they have a
shared set of values. An excellent resource is available at:
http://www.nationalahec.org/pdfs/VSRT-Team-Based-Care-Principles-Values.pdf

References
1
HHS strengthens patients’ right to access lab test reports (Fe. 3, 2014). Available at:
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2014pres/02/20140203a.html
2
Egener, B. (Nov. 2008). Addressing Physicians’ Impaired Communication Skills J Gen Intern
Med. 23(11): 1890–1895. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2585668/
3
New Approach to Improving Health Care Delivery Systems, Community Care of North
Carolina, Module 9: Establishing a Network Physician Program. Available at:
http://commonwealth.communitycarenc.org/toolkit/9/default.aspx

Section 3.5 Design–Establishing the Care Team: Roles and Communications - 10

 4
King, H. et al. TeamSTEPPS™: Team strategies and tools to enhance performance and patient
safety, Department of Defense and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Available at:
http://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/advances2/vol3/advances-king_1.pdf
5
Greiner, AC and E. Knebel, eds. (2003). Committee on the Health Professions Education
Summit, Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality, National Academies Press,
Washington, DC. Available at: http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2003/health-professions-education-
a-bridge-to-quality.aspx
6
World Health Organization (2003). Adherence to long-term therapies: Evidence for action.
Switzerland: WHO Library Cataloguing. Available at:
http://www.who.int/chp/knowledge/publications/adherence_introduction.pdf
7
Beckman, H.B. et al. (1994). The doctor-patient relationship and malpractice. Lessons from
plaintiff depositions. Archives of Internal Medicine, 154(12) 1365-1370. Available at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8002688
8
Davis, K. et al. (2002). Room for Improvement: Patient Report on the Quality of their Health
Care. New York: Commonwealth Fund. Available at:
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/usr_doc/davis_improvement_534.pdf
9
Lein C. and C.E. Wills. (2007). Using patient-centered interviewing skills to manage complex
patient encounters in primary care. American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 19:215-220.
Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17489953
10
DiMeglio K. S. Lucas, and C. Padula. (2005). Group Cohesion and Nurse Satisfaction: An
Examination of a Team-Building Approach. Journal of Nursing Administration. 35:3, 110-120.
Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15761307
11
Fagin, CM. (1992). Collaboration between nurses and physicians: no longer a choice.
Academic Medicine; 67(5):295-303. Available at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1575859
12
Martin, JS. (2010). Interprofessional collaboration among nurses and physicians: making a
difference in patient outcome. Swiss Medical Weekly. Available at:
http://www.smw.ch/docs/pdfcontent/smw-12648.pdf

Copyright © 2014 Stratis Health and KHA REACH. Updated 12/31/2014

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