Understanding the experience of care managers and relationship with patient outcomes: the COMPASS initiative.

OBJECTIVE: To understand how care managers implemented COMPASS and if this was related to patient health outcomes.

METHODS: A total of 96 COMPASS care managers were approached to participate in the online survey and 93 (97%) provided responses. Correlations were generated between key survey responses and the average number of care management contacts, patient depression, blood pressure and glycosylated hemoglobin outcomes.

RESULTS: Patients of care managers who reported spending more time on COMPASS-related tasks had higher rates of depression improvement (r=0.34; P=.002) and remission (r=0.27; P=.02) as well as higher rates of blood pressure control (r=0.29; P=.03).

CONCLUSIONS: To improve the effectiveness of care management in collaborative care models, particularly for patients with comorbid conditions and complex nonmedical needs, care managers need the support of social work and administrative support staff. Care managers for this patient population would also benefit from more intensive training in nonpharmacological depression treatment, such as motivational interviewing and behavioral activation. Additionally, systems support is needed such as education for primary care teams and psychiatry on the value of collaborative care models and integration of population management tools into electronic medical records.