The Miriam Hospital’s Project Bridge has created a detailed publication on how to create an intensive outreach and case management prison program in your community. Called Building a Program for Jack: Building Your Program Step-by-Step, it outlines the creation of a program from needs assessment through client transition procedures. Here is a brief outline of the process:
Step 1Coordinate Potential Services
Begin with needs assessment. Be sure to include local service agencies, health care providers, corrections staff, and ex-offenders in the planning process.
Step 2Develop Program Design
Tailor the program design to your mission, geographical area, and target population.
Step 3Locate the Program and Agency Setting
Create a welcoming environment. Hours of operation, reception area, and private interviewing space all contribute to the degree of safety and respect conveyed to clients.
Step 4
Hire Staff
Staffing is not the place to cut costs. Consider the goals you wish to achieve.
Step 5Work Within the Correctional System
A specific referral mechanism within the correctional facility needs to be developed to identify potential clients. Following institutional rules for inmate visits is essential for a cooperative relationship.
Step 6Protect Client Confidentiality and Foster Respect
It is important not to become identified in the inmates’ eyes with the correctional system. It also is important that you not be easily identified with an AIDS-specific service or organization.
Step 7Conduct the Initial Meeting
Visiting inmates before they are released provides a contact point. Explain how the program can be helpful, but don’t promise anything you can’t deliver.
Step 8Provide Services Following Release
Meeting clients in their homes or other community areas conveys respect and acceptance. Community-based service provision allows opportunities to teach resource management, frustration tolerance, appropriate advocacy, impulse control, and contingency planning.
Step 9Be Flexible. Determine Future Activities Based on Client Need
A harm-reduction philosophy is critical to keeping clients engaged in care. Client needs change over time; they may be ready for mental health or drug treatment services that previously had been declined, or clients in recovery may relapse.
Step 10Set Up Client Transition Procedures
A well-planned termination strategy is as necessary as a strong engagement phase.
Source: Project Bridge, Providence, RI.
2002 Salary Survey: How do your salary and benefits stack up when compared to those of your hospital case management peers?
Most respondents earn $50,000 to $80,000
Whatever people do for a living, they all want to know what their colleagues around the country are making so they can gauge just how fairly they’re being compensated for our efforts.
Hospital Case Management’s annual salary survey was mailed to readers along with the April 2002 issue.
Questionnaires, response forms, and envelopes were inserted into that newsletter. The responses contained no names unless readers wished to include them along with special comments.
The surveys were compiled and analyzed by American Health Consultants in Atlanta, publisher of HCM.
We had a solid response — our thanks to all the readers who responded. We’ve tabulated some results here that we think are of the most interest. What you learn may cause you to take a second look at your situation, but bear in mind that each position is different, and pay scales vary according to geographical location, facility size, experience level, and other specifics.
Getting right to the point
As was the case last year, annual gross income for HCM readers generally clustered between $50,000 and $80,000. (See graph.)
More than one-quarter of respondents (26.23%) earned between $50,000 and $59,000. Another 22.13% earned between $60,000 and $69,999. The third highest group was $70,000 to $79,999, with 17.21% of respondents. Only 7.38% earned less than $40,000, and less than 2% earned more than $100,000.
Most (59.84%) work between 41 and 50 hours per week, although nearly a third (30.33%) work even longer hours. About 37% received a salary increase of between 1% and 3%. Another 34% had a salary increase of between 4% and 6%.
The greatest percentage of respondents, 26.23%, have been working in hospital case management for between four and six years.
Another 21.31% have been working in the field between seven and nine years, while only 10.66% have worked in case management for 16 years or more. Eighteen percent have worked in case management three years or less. Meanwhile, nearly half (44.26%) of our respondents have working in health care for 25 years or more, and a full 72.13% have worked in health care for 19 years or more. The most common titles are director of case management (60.66%), case manager (12.3%), and utilization manager (8.2%).
Women overwhelmingly in majority
About 93% of our case management respondents are women. About 42% are in their forties, but there are a good number in their fifties (31.15%) and thirties (13.12%) as well.
About 40% have completed at least some graduate work, and another 24.59% have bachelor’s degrees.
When it comes to the number of people supervised, responses again ranged widely. About 21.% supervise six or fewer people; 30.32% supervise between seven and 15 people; and 37.71% supervise between 16 and 40 people. About 4.9% of respondents supervise more than 40 people.
By the map
A plurality of HCM’s readers (41.8%) hail from the Southern United States, while 19.67% live in the northern central states running from Ohio on the east to the bread basket states on the west. About 19% live in the Northeast, and 19.68% are from the West or West Coast. (See graph)
About 42% come from hospitals in what they describe as medium-sized communities. About 29% are from rural areas, and 13.93% each are from urban and suburban settings.
As usual, most of respondents, 73.77%, work in nonprofit institutions; 13.93% work in for-profit organizations; 5.74% work for state or county government facilities; and 6.56% work in either federal facilities or academic institutions.
As was the case last year, the highest percentage of our respondents (25.41%) work in hospitals with between 101 and 200 beds. The next largest group, 21.31%, work in hospitals with fewer than 100 beds. Another 18.85% work in hospitals with between 2001 and 300 beds, and 11.48% work in hospitals with 500 beds or more. Less than 1% respondents don’t work in a hospital setting. (See graphs 3, 4, 5.)
Audio conference tackles HIPAA privacy concerns
The recently released final privacy rule under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) makes significant changes to the existing regulations. With the April 14, 2003, compliance deadline fast approaching, are your staff receiving the proper training?
Sweeping changes will be needed
The American Hospital Association says implementing HIPAA will require "sweeping operational changes" and will take "intense education of hospital workers and patients."
To help you and your staff prepare, American Health Consultants offers HIPAA’s Final Privacy Regulations: What You Must Know to Comply, an hour-long audio conference Dec. 4, 2002, from 2:30-3:30 p.m., ET. You’ll learn detailed information on changes to the privacy rule, as well as practical methods to implement new procedures within your facility.
Also learn how to successfully manage privacy issues with business associates, and how to spot and avoid costly HIPAA violations.
Do you know what your enforcement priorities are? Do you need real-world examples? Our expert speakers, Debra Mikels and Chris Wierz, BSN, MBA, will help you understand your responsibilities and identify potential liabilities. All this will allow you to develop a HIPAA-compliance strategy with a rationale behind it.
Mikels is corporate manager of confidentiality for Partners Healthcare in Boston. The Partners system includes some of the largest and most respected facilities in the country, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. Mikels will provide the practical information and guidance you need to implement a comprehensive privacy policy in your organization.
Wierz is vice president of HIPAA and compliance initiatives for Houston-based Healthlink Inc., a health care consulting firm. She has worked with numerous facilities across the country to prepare them for HIPAA compliance, and now she shares many of her ideas with you.
The cost of the conference is $299, which includes free CE or CME for your entire staff, program handouts, and additional reading, a convenient 48-hour replay, and a conference CD. Don’t miss out. Educate your entire facility for one low price.
For more information or to register for the HIPAA audio conference, please call American Health Consultants’ customer service department at (800) 688-2421. When ordering, please refer to effort code: 65151.
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