The majority of older adults receive health care in primary care settings, yet many fail to receive the recommended standard of care for preventive services, chronic disease management, and geriatric syndromes. The Geriatric Resources for Assessment and Care of Elders (GRACE) model of primary care for low-income seniors and their primary care physicians (PCPs) was developed to improve the quali...

Cancer patients require care by a multidisciplinary medical team. Although nephrology usually is not the "core" specialty in such a multidisciplinary team, nonetheless it may substantially improve the quality of care. This paper reviews nephrologist's role in the management of the cancer patient.

PURPOSE Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the United States. Primary care teams can be best suited to improve quality of care and lower costs for patients with cardiovascular disease. This study evaluates the associations between primary care team communication, interaction, and coordination (ie, social networks); quality of care; and costs for patients w...

OBJECTIVE To develop consensus recommendations that provide principles and strategies for effectively implementing health care system changes, including an optimized role for pharmacists to engage in team-based, patient-centered care. DATA SOURCES An interdisciplinary group of stakeholders representing 12 states and 10 pharmacy practice settings. Consortium participants represented many areas...

CONTEXT The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) awarded Denver Health's (DH) integrated, safety net health care system $19.8 million to implement a "population health" approach into the delivery of primary care. This major practice transformation builds on the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) and Wagner's Chronic Care Model (CCM) to achieve the "Triple Aim": improved health f...

OBJECTIVE Teamwork in primary healthcare is associated with patient care processes and staff outcomes. The ability of teams to be innovative is a hypothesized mechanism. We examined the characteristics of general practices with good team climate for innovation, and assessed the impact of climate on chronically ill patients' assessment of their care and on the job satisfaction of the staff. DE...

OBJECTIVE To explore the types of communication used within primary health care teams (PHCTs), with a particular focus on the mechanisms teams use to promote optimal clinical and administrative information sharing. DESIGN A descriptive qualitative study. SETTING Primary health care teams in Ontario between August 2004 and October 2005. PARTICIPANTS Purposive sampling was used to recruit 1...

BACKGROUND The ability of medical teams to develop and maintain team situation awareness (team SA) is crucial for patient safety. Limited research has investigated team SA within clinical environments. This study reports the development of a method for investigating team SA during the intensive care unit (ICU) round and describes the results. METHODS In one ICU, a sample of doctors and nurses...