@article{26220a3891594a7e9b0c151fa3da219d,
title = "Improving Care Coordination Between Veterans Health Administration Primary Care Teams and Community Home Health Aide Providers: A Qualitative Study",
abstract = "Effective coordination between medical and long-term services is essential to high-quality primary care for older adults, but can be challenging. Our study assessed coordination and communication through semi-structured interviews with Veterans Health Administration (VHA) primary care clinicians (n = 9); VHA-contracted home health agencies (n = 6); and home health aides (n = 8) caring for veterans at an urban VHA medical center. Participants reported (1) establishing home health services is complex, requiring collaboration between many individuals and systems; (2) communication between medical teams and agencies is often reactive; (3) formal communication channels between medical teams and agencies are lacking; (4) aides are an important source of patient information; and (5) aides report important information, but rarely receive it. Removing structural communication barriers; incentivizing reporting channels and information sharing between aides, agencies, and primary care teams; and integrating aides into interdisciplinary teams may improve coordination of medical and long-term care.",
keywords = "care coordination, communication, home and community based care and services, home care, home care workers, primary care, qualitative methods, veterans",
author = "Emily Franzosa and Judon, {Kimberly M.} and Gottesman, {Eve M.} and Koufacos, {Nicholas S.} and Tessa Runels and Matthew Augustine and {Van Houtven}, {Courtney H.} and Boockvar, {Kenneth S.}",
note = "Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was funded by the VA Primary Care Analytics Team of the VA Office of Primary Care. Funding Information: The authors thank the VA Primary Care Analytics Team for funding this work, Vivian Guerrero Aquino for her assistance with interviewing, Emma K. Tsui for help developing our interview guides, and the home health aides, providers and agency administrators who generously shared their experience. Funding Information: The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors are all employees of the Veterans Health Administration. Van Houtven is funded by the Center of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation at the Durham VA Health Care System (CIN 13-410) and by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Research and Development, Research Career Scientist Program (RCS-21-137). The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2022.",
year = "2023",
month = apr,
doi = "10.1177/07334648221142014",
language = "English",
volume = "42",
pages = "552--560",
journal = "Journal of Applied Gerontology",
issn = "0733-4648",
publisher = "SAGE Publications Inc.",
number = "4",
}