Educate yourself so you can educate your patients
Ensuring that advance directives are in place for all patients presents an opportunity for case managers to meet a need and help ease families through a difficult time, says Stuart Brock, CCM, JD.
"I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a layperson and be faced with those documents and legal terminology for the first time when I just learned that someone very close to me is in a situation that requires them," adds Brock, an associate with the law firm of Womble Carlyle based in Winston-Salem, NC.
If you deal with elderly patients, you should find out if they have a will and if they have advanced directives such as a living will and a health care power of attorney that name someone else to make medical decisions if the patient can’t make them themselves.
- Make sure your elderly clients have planned their health care choices and have in place the mechanism to have their wishes carried out.
When you talk to your clients about other issues, ask them simple questions such as "do you have advanced directives in place?" Help them begin to formulate some of the questions they should ask and issues they should look out for.
"Don’t expect to reinvent the wheel overnight. Just get the ball rolling. We often miss out on opportunities to bring things up because of our hectic lives. But case managers need to bring up these subjects in their encounters. It will minimize the possibility of risk over time," Brock says.
- Contact the various elder care agencies in your area and educate yourself on end-of-life legal issues in your state.
Brock suggests using local resources such as the cooperative extension service, which may operate a community clinic, local law schools that sponsor elder clinics and other aging and senior services.
- Read as much as you can and learn the local laws that are important to you.
"Case managers should educate themselves, read as much as they can and learn the local jurisdictional difference that are important to them," Brock says.
- Look at how you assess patients and decide whether you need to include additional questions.
The information can be extrapolated to any decision where a patient’s competency will be questioned or when they are facing the risk of death, such as with major surgery or cardiovascular events, Brock adds.
"I cannot think of a single instance when someone encountering the health care delivery system wouldn’t want to put these documents into place," he adds.
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