Developing a community care team: Lessons learned from the community connections program, a health care home-community care team partnership

This article describes the development of the Community Connections Program (CCP), a community care team, within a health care home (HCH), as a short-term, intensive, team-based service planning and coordination program for older adults with multiple chronic health conditions. Three proven approaches were combined to support patient's self-management: nurse care coordination, the Wraparound process, and use of community services. Participants' responses to the CCP demonstrated the success of the community care team in connecting patients and nurse care coordinators (NCCs) with community service providers, thus supplying primary care providers with important information regarding the development of a community care team to support patient-centered care within a HCH.