Integrated Health Care (IHC) is a nurse-managed center of the College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago through which faculty nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists provide primary and mental healthcare services for people with serious mental illness in partnership with Thresholds, the leading freestanding psychiatric rehabilitation agency in Illinois with locations throughout metropolitan Chicago.This article describes a new project to increase access to IHC services and improve health outcomes for the most vulnerable, hard-to-reach Thresholds clients (called members) through an innovative combination of strategies to outreach beyond IHC's three clinic locations, including: house calls, group visits, and telemonitoring, IHC Without Walls (IHC WOW).As an academic nursing practice, we view IHC WOW as an opportunity to integrate teaching and evidence-based practice; accordingly our objectives include expansion of novice and advanced practice experiential learning within this innovative practice domain.
The authors conclude that primary care outreach is a promising strategy in mental health settings and that the Chronic Care Model (CCM) provides a set of guidelines for designing and monitoring quality integrated care for a partnership model of integrated care.
This discussion of the benefits of FQHC status, an overview of some common compliance issues with FQHC requirements, and the report of lessons learned along the way in meeting FQHC standards that we encountered can provide support and guidance for other NMCs in similar situations.
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