Care Coordination: The Game Changer--How Nursing Is Revolutionizing Quality Care. Gerri Lamb, editor and chapter author, 2013. Silver Spring, MD: Nursebooks. Softcover, 262 pages. $74.95 nonmembers; $59.95 ANA member.

Dr Gerri Lamb opens this book by sharing a personal story about coordinating care for an elderly parent in a fragmented health system while 2000 miles away. Even with years of experience in nursing and case management, she was unable to connect all the parts of the system for her mother. Her experience illustrates the rationale for this book.

The Game Changer brings care coordination, quality, and nursing together in an approach that can be adopted by health systems in all regions. Dr Lamb, as the editor, has carefully woven these 3 elements throughout the care continuum. The massive changes occurring in our health care system included in this text illustrate how nursing is revolutionizing quality care through care coordination.

The book provides a compelling foundation for why care coordination is important and why nursing plays an important role in this effort. In chapter 1, the author quotes the report to Congress by The National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care, the US Health and Human Services department:

Conscious patient-centered coordination of care not only improves the patient experience it also leads to better long-term health outcomes, as demonstrated by fewer unnecessary trips to the hospital, fewer repeated tests, fewer conflicting prescriptions, and clearer advice about the best course of treatment.

Care coordination is referenced as the "glue" that makes the health care system a safe and coherent place. Current care coordination models are differentiated from those of the past. Many of the models presented are deeply rooted in nursing.

Twenty-three authors from across the country, across disciplines, and across multiple nursing specialties contributed to this work.

The book is organized around 4 sections and 12 chapters. Below are selected quotes from each section:

1. Quality and Safety: The Foundation of Care Coordination Practice

a. Care coordination is front and center in the national quality agenda as one of the six priorities of the National Quality Strategy along with safer care, patient engagement, effective prevention, and treatment, best practices in healthy living and development of new healthcare delivery models). (Lamb, p. 3)

2. Care Coordination Practice and Leadership

a. Better outcomes, including patient and nurse outcomes, are linked to strong nursing leadership. (Duva, p. 98)

3. Improving Quality Through Effective Care Coordination

a. Changing the way we think about and use our hospitals is a central component of the national quality agenda in the United States... Care coordination is vital to this work. (Colorafi, Solomon, and Lamb, p. 115)

4. Transforming health care and policy

a. There may be no set of activities that are more dependent on high performing, interprofessional training and performance than care coordination. Fortunately, the evolution of health delivery systems will require implementation of interprofessional, team-based, patient- and family-centric care coordination. (Antonelli and Roger, p. 183)

Written for both academicians and service professionals, The Game Changer is scholarly and evidence based, yet practical and clearly understood. Case studies and sidebars are shared throughout. The editor pulls together the complex interactions of quality, care coordination, and nursing in easily understood language, consistently supported by research and case studies. It will serve not only as a reference for students but as a guideline for the many health care systems as they position themselves for a truly patient-centered, population-based health delivery model. This is a book you will tab, mark, and pull off your shelf frequently. I suspect it will have new editions every few years. "The main message of this book, and one we hope you will find meaningful and will inspire you to action, is about opportunity and urgency" (Lamb, xix). When you read this book, you will see it does indeed deliver the message.

In order to achieve value, health systems are focused on efforts to make sure that the patient receives the right care at the right time from the right health professional or community resource. At the heart of this work is care coordination. (Zazworsky, p. 187)

-Elizabeth (Betty) Falter, MS, RN, NEA