Building workforce capacity for complex care coordination: a function analysis of workflow activity.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Services Research
• Workforce Development

Background:

• The care coordination workforce supports patients with multiple chronic conditions, requiring multi-skilled approaches.
• Australian workforce structures lag behind the evolving needs of care coordination.
• Patients with complex needs are high users of health, community, and social services.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop, map, and analyze the workforce functions of a care coordination team in Australia.
• To understand the distribution of direct and indirect care activities.
• To identify core care coordination functions.

Main Methods:

• Workflow modeling and activity logs were used to collect data from care coordinators.
• Care coordination functions were classified into direct and indirect care categories.
• Descriptive quantitative analysis, including univariate statistics, was applied.

Main Results:

• Care coordinators spent 70.9% of their time on direct care versus 29.1% on indirect care.
• Key direct care functions included Assessment (14.1%) and Documentation (13.9%).
• Core care coordination functions accounted for 40.6% of direct care activities.

Conclusions:

• Modeling care coordination functions provides a basis for practice redesign.
• Understanding workflow activities supports the development of care coordination capacity.
• This analysis aids in enhancing workforce capability within care coordination services.