Case Management Advisor
RSSArticles
-
Workers’ Comp Case Managers Juggle Many Skills for Clients
For nurse case managers who enjoy a challenge, workers’ compensation offers the opportunity to use every organizational and creative skill to make things happen for people whose lives are in crisis. Workers’ compensation case managers must be highly skilled in communicating with a variety of stakeholders, including providers, insurance companies, patients, and others. They must ensure everyone understands that the patient should receive the right treatment at the right time to return to work as soon, efficiently, and timely as possible.
-
Bundled Payments, Population Health Fuel Move to New Healthcare Models
A health network with more than a dozen acute care hospitals has developed teams with advanced care providers to work with Medicare at-risk patients to improve care and reduce costs. The case management-style teams also work with some privately insured patients. The team approach has resulted in a 9.5% reduction in 30-day readmissions, according to a healthcare organization’s internal data.
-
Healthcare Organizations Use Different Approaches to Reducing Readmissions
Two different techniques highlight success in reducing healthcare costs and readmissions. What they have in common is a focus on teams. Developing the right skills and putting the right team in place are key to success.
-
Leapfrog Says Patient Safety Measures Improving; Maternity Not So Much
A recent report from the Leapfrog Group and Johns Hopkins found that poor hospital performance on 16 patient safety measures caused more than 161,000 deaths annually, a decrease from 2016. The Spring 2019 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades updates the group’s estimate of deaths due to errors, accidents, injuries, and infections, breaking them down by the A through F scores Leapfrog assigns to hospitals. An analysis of 2,600 hospitals reveal that when compared to A hospitals, there was a 92% greater risk of avoidable death at D and F hospitals.
-
Work With Community Partners to Develop Solutions for Opioid Use Disorder Patients
While many emergency physicians are reluctant to tackle the issue of addiction, there is growing recognition that EDs offer a huge opportunity to identify patients with opioid use disorders and link them to meaningful care. The obstacles are many, but forward-thinking emergency medicine leaders in regions hit hard by the opioid epidemic are finding paths to success, often in partnership with other agencies or community groups.
-
Collaborations Between Health Advocates and Case Managers, Others Can Make a Difference
Case managers and other healthcare providers increasingly are finding that their work includes collaboration and communication with providers and health advocates across the care continuum. For health advocates, these interactions are necessary to help the patient achieve optimal health and function.
-
Observe and Take Notes, But Try Not to Judge
Health advocates can collect comprehensive and important information about a patient’s daily life and share the findings with primary care providers. But it can be challenging to walk through someone’s home and listen and observe without judging and wanting to take immediate action.
-
How Health Advocates Work With Patients, Case Managers, and Other Resources
A health advocate’s role varies, depending on the patient populations and goals. Health advocates collaborate with the patient’s healthcare team and help everyone reach an agreement on the care transition or any necessary changes.
-
Privately Paid Case Managers Serve as Patient Health Advocates
Case managers work with patients across the care continuum, and their roles and titles vary. But one of the lesser-known models for case management is in private pay, where they are known as health advocates or patient advocates. It is a growing field, as patients and families often find it difficult to navigate the complex healthcare continuum. Health advocates provide case management-type services with their chief goals related to patients’ needs.
-
Optimize Data Visualization to Improve Communication About Quality Improvement
Data visualization is increasingly important in the communication of quality improvement data, and nearly everyone in the field uses it to some extent. But effective use of data visualization with graphics, dashboards, and other tools requires an understanding of why this approach works and how to optimize its effect.