Turning barriers into bridges is a skill you will want to develop as a care coordination expert. Today, care coordination is required often in rural areas where there are limited resources and the need to work creatively with inter-professional team members who may reside outside of the local area. The use of telehealth becomes a bridge to care coordination as a collaborative tool for health care providers as a team of specialist. Preparation For this assessment, you will develop prepare summary report for improved rural health in the form of a scholarly document. Review the Resources for this assessment and conduct your own library research to develop and support your ideas. As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment. As you think about rural areas and care coordination efforts, consider the importance of effectively utilizing interprofessional teams. What types of communication strategies would you, as a care coordination team leader of interprofessionals, consider to enhance collaborative understanding and respectful partnerships? How can you help the interprofessional team prepare to be a competent care delivery team of evidence-based care? Implementing or changing the use of technology is ongoing in care coordination practice. What type of strategy would you consider to enhance collaborative efforts with interprofessional team members with technology? How does technology alter the care coordination efforts when used effectively? What types of issues do you need to keep at the forefront when using technology to enhance communication and care? In each population or community, a care coordinator will have specific needs and challenges. What is most important when you consider cultural competence for the care coordination team within the context of legal and ethical care delivery? Requirements Prepare a 4–5 page summary report of a rural health care problem and potential solutions. Summary Report Format Use APA format. Create paragraph headings based on the scoring guide criteria.  Supporting Evidence Cite 5–7 sources of credible, scholarly, or professional evidence to support your claims and solutions. Directions There are many opportunities to turn barriers into bridges when working with limited resources. Imagine you are working as a care coordination consultant in a rural area and you need to find affordable solutions to many complex patient issues. You have decided to start with one type of patient population to design a path for care coordination using the resources in the community in conjunction with telehealth with regional outreach partners. Following these instructions will help ensure you meet the scoring guide criteria: Identify and describe a rural community, the patient issues they face, and one specific population you can assist with this plan. Address any cultural or diversity-aware responsibilities the care coordinator should consider. Identify the interprofessional team providers currently available in the rural community. Analyze how they can be assisted by telehealth partners in the region, and any other stakeholders that may be involved. Describe the nuances for this population related to cultural competence for the interprofessional team, and how this affects care coordination and collaboration. Recommend technology-based outreach strategies supported by evidence-based research. Incorporate proven educational and evidence-based strategies, and how they might be modified using the outreach partners to enhance care in this rural community. Also, do consider the legal issues with telehealth and how this new strategy provides a clear path to ethical practice into the future. Support main points, claims, and conclusions with relevant and credible evidence, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style. Scoring Guide Criteria Your assessment should meet the following scoring guide criteria: Describe a specific population need and the community. Analyze current available interprofessional team providers and resources. Identify areas of cultural competency the team must address. Recommend technology-based outreach strategies supported by evidence-based research. Identify possible legal issues. Explain the continuation of ethical care in the updated system. Communicate effectively in an appropriate form and style, consistent with applicable professional and scholarly standards. Additional Requirements Your assessment should also meet the following requirements: Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message. APA formatting: Your paper should demonstrate current APA style and formatting. Number of resources: Include 5–7 resources, appropriately cited throughout your paper and in your reference list. Length: 4–5 pages, typed and double-spaced, not including the title page and reference list. Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point. Portfolio Prompt: You may choose to save this learning activity to your ePortfolio. Competencies Measured By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria: Competency 1: Analyze the use of ethics to enhance coordinated care. Explain the continuation of ethical care in the updated system. Competency 2: Evaluate the legal implications in care coordination. Identify possible legal issues. Competency 3: Critically appraise collaborative and interprofessional relationships with care coordination stakeholders. Analyze current available interprofessional team providers and resources. Competency 4: Recommend care coordination standards of practice for working with stakeholders. Recommend technology-based outreach strategies supported by evidence-based research. Competency 5: Determine components of an effective, culturally competent, diversity-aware care coordination environment. Describe a specific population need and the community. Identify areas of cultural competency the team must address. Competency 7: Communicate effectively with diverse audiences, in an appropriate form and style, consistent with applicable organizational, professional, and scholarly standards. Communicate effectively in an appropriate form and style, consistent with applicable professional and scholarly standards. Optional Resources: COMMUNICATION AND CULTURAL COMPETENCE Ghaffari, A., Wells, R., Creel, L., & Siañez, M. (2018, March). A relational perspective on care coordination [PDF]. Health Care Management Review, 1–10. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.). TeamSTEPPS: Team strategies & tools to enhance performance & patient safety. https://www.ahrq.gov/teamstepps/index.html This resource offers information and toolkits about cohesive team building. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.). TeamSTEPPS helps St. Louis Hospital keep C-section rate low. https://www.ahrq.gov/news/newsroom/case-studies/20... This case study offers an example of successful interdisciplinary communicatioN COORDINATION, STRATEGY AND TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES Chang, L., Wanner, K. J., Kovalsky, D., Smith, K. L., & Rhod, K. V. (2018). It's really overwhelming: Patient perspectives on care coordination. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 31(5), 682–690. https://www.jabfm.org/content/31/5/682 Rea, C. J., Wenren, L. M., Tran, K. D., Zwemer, E., Mallon, D., Bernson-Leung, M., Samuels, R. C., & Toomey, S. L. (2018). Shared care: Using an electronic consult form to facilitate primary care provider–specialty care coordination. Academic Pediatrics, 18(7), 797–804. Fernandez, J., McGuire, A., & Raikou, M. (2018). Hospital coordination and integration with social care in England: The effect on post-operative length of stay. Journal of Health Economics, 61, 233–243.

In what other ways might optimization be used to maximize healthcare delivery? What types of processes and workflows are best served by optimization in health services organizations?Optimization is a vital prescriptive analytic technique that healthcare administrators can use to help address challenges in effective and efficient healthcare delivery. Health decision makers may seek to find optimal solutions for a particular objective given various constraints. For example, optimization is often used for generating nursing staff schedules to ensure appropriate staff coverage with varying patient inflows.For this Assignment, you will be using optimization techniques to evaluate two separate medical problems, one involving mechanical heart valves and another involving a pharmaceutical company. Review the resources for this week, and examine the different optimization techniques that can be used for this Assignment.For Chapter 13, problems 36 and 42, you will need to download the files P13_36.xlsx and P13_42.xlsx from the textbook companion website http://www.cengage.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=9781305947542. Under “Book Resources”, click on “Student Downloads” to view the downloadable files. Click “Problem Files” and download the zipped file 1305947541_538885.zip. Open the zipped file, and select folder “Problem Files” and then select folder “Chapter 13” to access the files P13_36.xlsx and P13_42.xlsx.The Assignment: (3–5 pages)Complete Problem 36 on page 657 (mechanical heart valves) and Problem 42 on page 659 (pharmaceutical company) of your course text.