Hospital Case Management articles from June 2003

Hospital Case Management archives from June 2003

Assign cases based on acuity level of patients, not just on the number: managing some cases takes a few minutes; others take hours.
June 1, 2003... If one case manager oversees the care of 20 patients in a day and another handles only 18 cases, the first case manager must be more productive, right? Not necessarily, asserts Teresa C. Fugate, RN, BBA, CPHQ, CCM, manager of Pershing,...

Time studies facilitate case assignment: average out the times for each task.
June 1, 2003... A time study is one way to measure productivity at the same time you reduce the disparity in assignments between your case managers. "Case managers know instinctively about how much time it's going to take to manage some patients. That's...

Electronic system places patients in post-acute care: cuts length of stay, saves time for case managers.
June 1, 2003... Discharge planning for patients who need long-term care often is a challenge for hospital case managers, particularly if the patient is from another region. They are faced with finding care for a complex patient in another state where they...

Electronic system takes time and patience: ensure staff, referral sources understand system.
June 1, 2003... Switching to an electronic discharge system was a culture shift, not only for Charleston-based Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) staff but for local providers as well. "It was confusing to the local facilities that the Medical...

Safety concerns should not end with discharge: preventing errors after patients return home. (Critical Path Network).
June 1, 2003... The transition from hospital to home is a potentially vulnerable period, and the medical community should explore ways to reduce adverse events during this transition, say the authors of a new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The...

Baptist Health Care's performance standards: 'be truthful and honest in all dealings'. (Critical Path Network).
June 1, 2003... At Baptist Health Care Corp. in Pensacola, FL, the following question is posed to employees: If I'm going to be successful in this culture, how do I need to act? Performance standards, compiled by employees, are behaviors to be...

Take a deep breath, now prepare for EDI deadline: testing already should have begun. (Critical Path Network).(electronic data interchange)
June 1, 2003... Just as health care managers take a breath after rushing to make sure their hospitals are in compliance with the privacy standard, it's time to kick into gear for the upcoming Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) transaction...

More ED crowding seen at large, urban hospitals. (Critical Path Network).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Hospitals experiencing the most problems with emergency department (ED) crowding are located in large metropolitan areas with high population growth and a large percentage of uninsured people, according to a recent report by the federal...

Speed up orders for inpatients held in ED. (Ambulatory Care).
June 1, 2003... What is your No. 1 obstacle to reducing delays and improving patient flow? For many emergency department (ED) managers, the culprit increasingly is inpatients being held in the ED for hours or even days. "If we can expedite getting the...

Use protocol to send inpatient holds upstairs. (Ambulatory Care).
June 1, 2003... It was a typical scenario: The emergency department (ED) at Stonybrook (NY) University Medical Center was holding 15 or 20 admitted patients waiting for an inpatient bed to become available. This was a common occurrence, but Peter Viccellio,...

CE questions.
June 1, 2003... This concludes this CE semester, please return the enclosed CE survey form. 23. According to Teresa C. Fugate, switching to an acuity-based system for case management assignments can have which of the following benefits? A. It can...

CM services may become more important than ever: services will increase in importance.(case management)
June 1, 2003... As the Commission on Certification of Case Managers (CCMC) celebrates its 10th anniversary, leaders in the case management field say the demand for case management will continue to grow as the health care system becomes more chaotic and...