Hospital Case Management articles from April 2002

Hospital Case Management archives from April 2002

Case managers must take a proactive role in managing denials; cooperation with billing departments, physicians crucial.
April 1, 2002... With hospitals facing increasing financial challenges, a growing emphasis is being placed on proactive denial management. For case managers operating on the "front end," this has created the need to closely coordinate their activities with...

Software can improve denial management; case managers integral part of revenue recovery.
April 1, 2002... In an effort to reduce denials and improve their financial performance, an increasing number of hospitals are establishing revenue recovery units to overturn unpaid claims, while others are employing new software to reduce the number of unpaid...

Effective documentation: know you're doing it right; focus on decision-making process.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... As every case manager knows, getting claims paid boils down to effective documentation. "Documentation is the key," says health care attorney Kathy Fritz, JD, RN, a former nurse practitioner. "So much of what we know about the patient and...

Medication errors: how CMs can make care safer; most frequent errors include improper dose. (Part 1 of a 2-part series).(case managers)
April 1, 2002... (This story is the first of a two-part series on medication errors. Next month, the authors will discuss 10 specific strategies to help prevent such errors from occurring.) One morning as a rookie nurse, I * was asked to leave my home base,...

New protocol can rule out MIs in 90 minutes; triage combined with point-of-care blood test.(myocardial infarction)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Using a simple, inexpensive blood test and a critical pathway for triage, researchers at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in San Diego have developed a protocol that can rule out heart attacks in 90 minutes, compared with six to 24...

JCR issues `call to action' for good practices.(Joint Commission Resources, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Joint Commission Resources (JCR), a subsidiary of the Oakbrook Terrace, IL-based Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, is issuing a call to action for hospitals to submit good practice examples related to patient...

Cooperative accreditation in the works for hospitals.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Work is continuing on the effort to establish a cooperative accreditation agreement between the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and other accrediting bodies. If approved by the Joint Commission board of...

CCMC changes exam dates to increase accessibility.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The Commission for Case Management Certification (CCMC) has changed it exam cycle, beginning October 2002. In the past, the exams have been offered in June and in December. This year marks the last time the exam will be administered in...

Conference replays offer educational opportunity.
April 1, 2002... Have you missed one of American Health Consultants' recent audio conferences? If so, two upcoming conference replays offer another opportunity to take advantage of excellent continuing education opportunities for your entire facility. ...

Discharge process enables faster placement; report quality greatly enhanced, CM director says.(case management)
April 1, 2002... Case managers at New York Hospital of Queens in Flushing are using a new software tool to determine the availability of post-acute services, then request and schedule those services over the Internet, says Caroline Keane, RN, MSN, ANP, CCM,...

To smooth discharge, check bed `life cycle'; defining terms spurs solution, physician says.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Hospitals with ongoing bed management problems and high censuses would do well to look more closely to determine the true cause, suggests John Whitcomb, MD, medical director of emergency services for Milwaukee's St. Luke's Medical Center, which...

CE questions.(continuing education)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Save your monthly issues with the CE questions in order to take the two semester tests in the June and December issues. A Scantron sheet will be inserted in those issues, but the questions will not be repeated. 13. According to John...

Early results of Leapfrog hospital survey promising; nearly half of institutions contacted provided replies.(Brief Article)(Polling Data)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... In mid-2001, a total of 525 hospitals in six regions around the country were invited to complete a web-based patient survey by the Business Roundtable's The Leapfrog Group in Washington, DC. Now, the first returns are in, and The Leapfrog...

Putting safety principles into practice; incentivizing safety efforts.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... When it comes to safety, theory is nice but results are better. Two panelists at the Leapfrog Group press briefing reported how they have given teeth to safety principles with transformative initiatives. Michael A. Stocker, MD, MPH, CEO of...

Safety tool stresses education and action; tragedy transforms facility into industry model.(Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)
April 1, 2002... Two tragic medication errors seven years ago prompted Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to undertake what CEO Jim Conway calls "a journey of change." That journey has led to industrywide praise and recognition, including the recent...

Hospital Case Management reader survey.
April 1, 2002... In an effort to learn more about the professionals who read Hospital Case Management, we are conducting this reader survey. The results will be used to enhance the content and format of HCM. Instructions: Mark the appropriate answers by...