Employee Management
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Healthcare Workers at Risk of Slips, Trips, and Falls
In a study that has implications for preventing slip injuries in healthcare, researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that wearing slip-resistant shoes dramatically reduced workers’ compensation claims for school food service workers. The study included some 17,000 food service workers from 226 school districts.
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WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak an International Emergency
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared an international health emergency for the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a case appeared in a highly populated city with global air travel. In declaring an international emergency, the WHO is calling for international aid and assistance while emphasizing that it would be counterproductive to shut down travel to the region.
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The Joint Commission: Preventing Nursing Burnout
The Joint Commission (TJC) has identified nurse staffing, recruitment, and retention as “priorities for further evaluation in the coming year” to prevent nursing burnout. TJC recently issued a Quick Safety alert, emphasizing that nursing burnout can worsen patient outcomes, including mortality. The report cited a 2017 literature review on preventing nursing burnout that identified six studies, representing 3,248 nurses worldwide. These studies revealed that the most common factors related to burnout are exclusion from the decision-making process, the need for greater autonomy, security risks, and staffing issues.
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Physician Burnout: Seeking Resilience in a Broken System
Healthcare facilities and employee health professionals have responded to an epidemic of physician burnout with programs to build resiliency, such as yoga and mindfulness meditation. However, even advocates of these approaches say they are not a panacea, as larger system-level problems are driving physician frustration and subsequent burnout.
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Case Management’s Role in Managing Denials and Appeals in the New Healthcare Environment
Revenue is defined as the sum earned by the provider, measured in dollars. The revenue cycle is defined as the series of activities connecting the services rendered by a healthcare provider with the methods by which the provider receives compensation for those services. Case management plays an integral role in managing revenue and the revenue cycle in the denials and appeals processes. This month, we will discuss the case manager’s role in the revenue cycle as it relates to the management of denials and appeals.
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Nursing Innovation Is Underused and Can Be Leveraged for Career Advancement
Nurses are gaining more stature as potential leaders in healthcare, and much of the innovation in healthcare will come from nurses in the future. Hospitals should work to leverage the innovative potential of nurses, and nurses in the quality field should look for opportunities to advance their careers through this increasingly available pathway.
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Helping Patients Find Motivation to Make Changes
Eat healthy, exercise regularly, and sleep more are healthy goals case managers and nurses reinforce to patients. But case managers often have difficulty living up to their own advice when hectic daily schedules leave little time for healthy pursuits. These goals are so hard to pursue because the benefits are so long-term.
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Avoiding Denials for Transitions of Care
Too often, a patient’s claim for post-acute care is denied for reasons that are entirely preventable. This transition may include either rehabilitation or palliative services in a facility, ongoing outpatient therapy, or care provided at home. These authorizations are scrutinized closely by both payers and regulatory bodies, so it is critical that hospital case managers know how to avoid denials.
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Patient Activation Is a Health Promotion Method That Works
Case managers continually learn new methods to educate and engage patients. The key is to find the right method for case managers to achieve their patient education goals. The patient activation measure is based on the theory that there is a great deal of variation in patient activation/engagement in a patient population. Some patients need more support, and should be evaluated to see what works.
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The Inner Workings of a Health Coaching Program
Hospital case managers and others interested in extending case management through the use of student health coaches can implement a health coaching program with a local college. Both hospitals and colleges can benefit from the collaboration.