Clinical care coordination program: a working partnership

Rural hospitals are burdened by inadequate reimbursement, low occupancy rates, high numbers of uninsured patients, and uncompensated care. The authors present an innovative solution, the Clinical Care Coordination Program, to uncompensated care related to prolonged length of stay in a 188-bed rural hospital. The authors discuss the rationale for the development of the program and the steps used to develop it. Evaluation of the Clinical Care Coordination Program demonstrated statistically significant decrease in length of stay for the services involved in the program. Further evaluation of the responses of persons involved in the program or affected by it also are positive.