Energy is growing around complex care and the potential it has to help the individuals currently falling through the cracks of our healthcare system. But like any new field of care, there are questions around direction, priorities, and clarification of shared language. What are the core tenets of the field of complex care? What are the goals of the complex care movement? What should our top priorities be for the advancement of complex care? How can we get everyone working on this problem across the country on the same page and make sure that we aren’t missing anyone at the table?

To answer these questions, in the fall of 2017 the National Center, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), launched an ambitious project: the Blueprint for Complex Care. Based on input from consumers, providers, administrators, executives, and more from across the country, the Blueprint will serve as a strategic plan for the emerging field of complex care.

Attendees of Putting Care at the Center 2017 were able to give their input into the Blueprint with an activity at the conference’s Beehive. Working with their colleagues, they shared their answers to some of the major questions that the Blueprint project aims to tackle. Throughout the conference, attendees had the opportunity to answer open-ended survey questions on topics like what the greatest needs are in the field of complex care, what priority areas of focus there should be in the next three years, what inspires them to take action, and more. This input will be included in the final Blueprint and has helped to inform the next phases of the Blueprint’s development.

Over the next few months, we’ll be interviewing key players in the field of complex care, and bringing leaders from institutions across the country together for an expert convening in March. Look out for more opportunities to weigh in this spring, when we’ll be holding open calls for Blueprint input.

The final Blueprint document will be available in the fall of 2018, with Putting Care at the Center 2018 as an venue to share the Blueprint with the consumers, providers, policymakers, researchers, and more from across the country who will be attending our annual conference.

The goal of the Blueprint is to be a roadmap for the next 20 years of the field’s growth. Just as a blueprint is necessary to guide the construction of a home, the Blueprint for Complex Care will help illuminate a collective strategy for the field, and begin to bring together the ongoing efforts of hundreds of programs into a cohesive and identifiable field of practice.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you throughout the process. Please email [email protected] with any questions.

The Blueprint for Complex Care is made possible through the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, and The SCAN Foundation.