Collaborative care reduces health care costs and improves patient outcomes

Lowering costs and improving patient outcomes are common goals for most health care providers. A new study from Creighton University School of Medicine and Center for Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research, published Aug. 12 in the Annals of Family Medicine, yielded a reduction in health care costs in an especially vulnerable group: high risk patients. The study, "Lessons From Practice Transformation," involved patients at a family practice clinic at CHI Creighton University Medical Center-University Campus near downtown. The clinic was specifically designed around something called the interprofessional collaborative practice (ICPC) model.