Hospital Case Management articles from June 2004

Hospital Case Management archives from June 2004

Hospitalists and case managers team up for better outcomes: trend toward inpatient specialists is on the rise.(related article: Keep hospitalists on the right track with proper incentives: work closely with hospitalists from the first day.)
June 1, 2004... When Christiana Hospital in Newark, DE, first instituted its hospitalist program in 1994, the hospital experienced a big drop in length of stay, especially with the uninsured patients who had no particular physician watching over them, recalls...

Six Sigma improves care, reduces hospitals' costs: projects reduce variation, create efficiency.
June 1, 2004... Before Virtua Health instituted a Six Sigma project to improve its congestive heart failure program, the hospital system's average length of stay (LOS) was 6.5 days, compared with the Medicare benchmark of 4.2 days. After a pilot project at one...

What to do if physicians dispute your data: how to present data effectively.(Critical Path Network[TM])(management of clinical data)
June 1, 2004... It's a frequent tactic of physicians: claiming that quality data are imperfect, invalid, or otherwise misleading. "When physicians are not acting on proven data, the quality manager has to stand up to the physicians and protect the...

Physician buy-in helps PI team reduce LOS: data credibility, physician champion key elements.(Critical Path network[TM])(process improvement)(length of stay)(Peninsula Regional Medical Center)
June 1, 2004... Winning physician buy-in, one of the toughest challenges in any process improvement (PI) endeavor, was the key to success in a PI project undertaken by Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, MD. The project, which targeted clinical PI...

CE questions.(continuing education program)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... This concludes this CE semester. Please fill out the enclosed CE evaluation form and return in the envelope provided. 21. At Christiana Hospital in Newark, DE, hospitalists provide care for about what percentage of the medical patients? ...

Pneumonia guidelines will affect 750,000 ED patients: recommendations address antibiotics, lab, SARS.(Ambulatory Care Quarterly)(emergency department)(health guidelines by Infectious Diseases Society of America)
June 1, 2004... An adult patient with fever and cough: This is something you probably see at least once a day and perhaps dozens of times a day in your emergency department (ED) during the flu season. But did you know about new recommendations that call for...

A billing analyst can find $300,000 for your ED.(Ambulatory Care Quarterly)(rise in financial status of the emergency department through the services of billing analysts)
June 1, 2004... A dedicated billing analyst for your emergency department (ED) can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars that goes straight to the bottom line instead of just flying out the window, say two managers who have added about $300,000 a year. And...

ED volume increasing, most hospitals report.(emergency department)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Some 68% of hospitals responding to a recent survey by the Schumacher Group said patient volume in their emergency department (ED) had increased in the past 12 months, with most reporting an increase from 1% to 10%. Only 18% of respondents...

Advocacy may be a balancing act for CMs.(Guest Column)(case managers' relations with patients, hospitals and insurance companies)(Column)
June 1, 2004... For case managers working in an acute-care environment, advocacy is a fundamental principle of the services they provide. Advocacy may be described simply as "wanting, getting, and doing what is in the best interest of the patient and the...