Cardiac Patient Care Coordination: A Comprehensive Literature Review on Outcomes

Care coordination is a vital aspect of the U.S. primary care landscape. Care Coordination is the deliberate process of managing a patient across different provider settings and services and is a vital part of chronic patient care. Most primary care providers (PCPs) today have moved to adopt some form of patient-centered care that serves as the central hub for coordinating and managing a patient's complete healthcare journey. PCPs' access to specialist records and their familiarity with their patients' long-term disease courses uniquely position them as the prime coordinators of patient care. Care coordination is becoming increasingly important in cardiac care as it has been shown to lead to positive health outcomes. Heart disease is the number one cause of death worldwide, while also contributing to higher rates of emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and higher costs. Heart disease also contributes to increased noncardiac comorbidities, like lung disease and diabetes, and a high number of prescription medications. With the amount of both primary care and specialty doctor visits, tests and procedures, and prescription medications, care coordination is the perfect tool to properly manage the care of a patient with heart disease. Care coordination has been shown to lower the rate of emergency room visits, readmissions to the hospital, and a faster return to work rate for patients who have a cardiac disease. This literature review summarized the evidence of various cardiac care coordination interventions, specifically applied to patients with heart diseases, focusing on the effectiveness of nurse-led multidisciplinary teams, frequency of follow-up, and the timing and accuracy of patient information flow. By synthesizing existing research, this review showed that care coordination interventions positively influence patient health outcomes, including reducing hospital readmissions, improving patient satisfaction, enhancing quality of life, and reducing costs.