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A newly diagnosed diabetic, we'll call him Mr. Smith, called in to Capital District Physicians' Health Plan Health Coach Connection because his doctor had told him he needed to undergo gastric bypass surgery if he was going to live another 10 years.
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The great majority of U.S. health care dollars are spent supporting the chronically ill, yet the traditional focus of hospital care is on the "episode of illness," notes Bob Whipple, RNC, CCM, CCS, MHA, a Boston-based senior management consultant with ACS Healthcare Solutions.
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Expectant mothers receive a lot of information over the course of their pregnancy and are sometimes inundated with things to remember. Yet one important message that needs to be stressed is that some may experience postpartum mood disorders that can adversely affect their mental health.
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Chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries are learning to keep their disease under control through Care Improvement Plus's "Special Needs" Medicare Advantage plan that includes telephonic disease management and face-to-face meetings with a nurse case manager.
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Discharge planners/case managers are likely to encounter instances in which home care, hospice, and home medical equipment (HME) providers state that they cannot accept patients because they are "unsafe" at home. The use of this term may be confusing to discharge planners/case managers. What is it about patients' homes that make them "unsafe" for them to receive services there? Aren't all patients appropriate for home care?
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A multi-pronged approach to improving immunization rates for members, particularly infants and adolescents, has earned recognition for Independence Blue Cross from the Pennsylvania Immunization Coalition (PAIC).
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As the emphasis has shifted toward the business aspects of health care, some case managers also have shifted their focus from the positive influence they have on patients lives to the impact of case management on the bottom line, Peter Moran, RN, C, BSN, MS, CCM, asserts.
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A team approach by community-based personnel from Green Ribbon Health is helping chronically ill Medicare participants learn to manage their conditions, improve their health, and preserve their independence.
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Medication management is a major challenge with the Medicare population. Many are on multiple medications. They forget to take their medicine or get confused about what pill to take when and whether they should take it with or without food. Some have visual problems or low literacy levels and can't read and understand the labels.
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As part of the Department of Health and Human Services' Value-Driven Health Care initiative, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has launched a compendium of health care report cards. It is designed to provide health care report card developers and researchers a range of models on which to base future work.
