Hospital Case Management – June 1, 2004
June 1, 2004
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Hospitalists and case managers team up for better outcomes
When Christiana Hospital in Newark, DE, first instituted its hospitalist program in 1994, the hospital experienced a big drop in length of stay, especially with the uninsured patients who had no particular physician watching over them, recalls Thomas Mannis, MD, senior medical advisor for case management and head of the division of hospitalists. -
Keep hospitalists on the right track with proper Incentives
At Medical City Dallas Hospital, there is a healthy competition between two hospitalist groups who compare their outcomes with those of the other group and all the physicians in the hospital, says Beverly Cunningham, MS, RN, director of case management. -
Six Sigma improves care, reduces hospitals’ costs
Before Virtua Health instituted a Six Sigma project to improve its congestive heart failure program, the hospital systems average length of stay (LOS) was 6.5 days, compared with the Medicare benchmark of 4.2 days. After a pilot project at one of the Marlton, NJ-based nonprofit health care providers four hospitals, the LOS dropped to four days with a savings of $116,000 per year in staff and room costs. -
Advocacy may be a balancing act for CMs
For case managers working in an acute-care environment, advocacy is a fundamental principle of the services they provide. Advocacy may be described simply as wanting, getting, and doing what is in the best interest of the patient and the family. In practice, however, case managers find themselves acting as advocates not only for the patient and family but for the hospital and provider of care as well. -
Critical Path Network: What to do if physicians dispute your data
Its a frequent tactic of physicians: claiming that quality data are imperfect, invalid, or otherwise misleading. -
Critical Path Network: Physician buy-in helps PI team reduce LOS
Winning physician buy-in, one of the toughest challenges in any process improvement (PI) endeavor, was the key to success in a PI project undertaken by Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, MD. -
Ambulatory Care Quarterly: Pneumonia guidelines will affect 750,000 ED patients
An adult patient with fever and cough: This is something you probably see at least once a day and perhaps dozens of times a day in your emergency department (ED) during the flu season. But did you know about new recommendations that call for changes concerning when patients receive antibiotics, which diagnostic tests they are given, and whether they are discharged or admitted? -
Ambulatory Care Quarterly: A billing analyst can find $300,000 for your ED
A dedicated billing analyst for your emergency department (ED) can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars that goes straight to the bottom line instead of just flying out the window, say two managers who have added about $300,000 a year. -
News Brief
ED volume increasing, most hospitals report.