Nurse Practitioner Care Model: Meeting the Health Care Challenges With a Collaborative Team

In today's environment, organizational delivery systems must produce high-quality, efficient, and cost-effective services. Central to restructuring care delivery is the evolving role of the nurse practitioner (NP) and the integration of the role as part of the health care workforce. The NP Care Model was designed and introduced to the organizational workforce in a medical center to coordinate, manage, and monitor the outcomes of high-risk patients with chronic disease efficiently. This program focused specifically on patients with heart failure who were discharged to home and identified to be at high-risk for early readmissions. The Healthy Heart Initiative prograrr coordinated by the NP addressed targeted causes of rehospitalization (lifestyle, medication and diet noncompliance, and lack of self-care disease management). The program objective of improved financial performance were met by reducing the 30-day readmission rate. Operational effectiveness and quality patient outcomes were met through the design and implementa tion of the NP Care Model, and overall patient reported satisfaction.