What is NCCARE360?

• A. A statewide data warehouse for health outcomes
• B. The nation's first statewide closed-loop referral system that tracks whether people actually receive services
• C. A hospital network
• D. A public health grant program

Answer: (B)

NCCARE360 is a statewide closed-loop referral system that tracks whether people actually receive services. It serves as a central directory of community resources and a workflow for making referrals from health care, social services, and community partners to service providers. The key feature is the closed loop: you can see each step of a referral—created, acknowledged, services delivered, and completed—so you know if the person received the intended help and what outcomes resulted. This makes it different from a simple data warehouse (which stores data without the referral-tracking workflow), a hospital network (which is about hospital facilities and care delivery), or a public health grant program (which involves funding rather than coordinating referrals and outcomes). In public health practice, NCCARE360 helps connect people to resources addressing social needs and allows organizations to measure whether referrals lead to actual services.