[First Last Name]
English [Number]
[Date Month Year]
1. Research Problem
The growing popularity of the patient care coordination (PCC) programs have spawned a growing literature investigating the extent of its success as a program and the challenges it had to face in fulfilling its objective of keeping the patients from hospitals for their health concerns and the cost issues related to it. This study will determine the best practices so far generated in the current experiences of PCC program.
2. Intent of the Study
The study intends to determine the best practices generated in the experience of administering PCC programs.
3. Proposed Procedure
The study will review at least ten peer-reviewed PCC studies to uncover theories of best practices generated to-date in the PCC programs administration. Peer-reviewed articles will be searched through Google scholar and the databases accessible at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Search will be conducted using the key phrases “patient care coordination” and “care coordination.”
The first ten full-articles that evaluate outcomes of PCC programs and activities will be selected as samples for review. Articles accessible only through paid subscription or in abstract will be eliminated. Practices indicated as effective in the results will be listed and ranked according to the frequency it appeared in the selected articles with one point per article and a total of 10 points for each best practice. In meta-analyses articles, each mention of a best practice in the reviewed studies will be given one point each. Articles that find the best practice ineffective will result in a one-point deduction from the best practice’s running score. The best practices garnering a total score of 8, or if total possible points exceed 10 points, obtained 80 percent of scores, will be confirmed as the best practices in PCC programs.
An in-depth study of these practices will follow. Using key words from the descriptive statement of best practice, new ten articles for each best practice will be located using the sampling procedure above mentioned. These new articles will be used to create and thorough theoretical framework for each best practice identified in the study. The detailed description of each best practice procedure will be discussed in the theoretical framework. Theory creation follows. Discussion on each best practice’s impact of the PCC program will be discussed thoroughly in the results and discussion. Recommendations will cover gaps noted in the study, followed by possible approaches to fill these gaps as possible focus in future studies.
4. Methodology
This study will utilize the Grounded Theory Method conducted through archival analysis often peer-reviewed and published PCC research reports. In this method, the theory will not be applied to the data. Instead, the data will be analyzed to generate the theory. The concept of “best practices” in PCC programs will guide the creation of the theoretical framework of the first article reviewed up to the tenth article. Each identified best practice will then be evaluated as to whether the article has categorically considered it as an “effective practice” employed in the PCC program environment.
5. Subjects
This study will utilize an open sampling approach to locate general concepts of best practices employed in the study as reported in the article reviewed. Each best practice identified will be tabulated and given points according to their occurrence at one point per article, reporting its effectiveness as used in the PCC program environment discussed in the article. After reviewing the tenth article, the tabulated best practices are then ranked according to the number of articles they were reported as effective practices.
