How to tell clients what case managers do
CMSA-led coalition establishes CM definition
After an exhaustive process that involved collecting and evaluating more than 150 separate definitions of case management, the Case Management Leadership Coalition (CMLC) has come up with a statement designed to help case managers explain what they do:
"Case managers work with people to get the health care and other community services they need, when they need them, and for the best value," is the consumer-friendly definition selected after a year of work.
Because so many people call themselves "case managers" no matter what they do, the CMLC, a group of case management leaders who work in various settings, decided to come up with a definition that patients and clients could easily understand.
"There is still a lot of confusion among consumers and in the health care industry because of the many ways that case management is defined. Even though the CMSA Standards of Practice clearly define case management, it doesn’t stop people from using the term to mean other things," says Jeanne Boling, MSN, CRRN, CDMS, CCM, executive director of the Little Rock, AR-based Case Management Society of American (CMSA).
The group set out to identify the skill sets and knowledge that case managers have so that case managers will be identified by what they actually do, rather than just a job title that can encompass a lot of different things, she adds.
The leadership coalition asked patients and clients to complete the statement: "I know my case manager has done a good job, because . . ."
Responses included: they help me understand, they educate; they provide options; they coordinate; they listen; they help; they support; they negotiate.
After developing the definition, the coalition tested it with people in different populations — Medicaid and Medicare recipients and the commercially insured — and found it to be user-friendly.
Case managers can use the consumer definition of care management in many ways, Boling says. For instance, they can use it to explain their job when they meet a new patient or client. They can use it in advertising and marketing materials and incorporate it into letters introducing themselves to clients.
The CMLC began as a one-time event in 2002 and has evolved into an ongoing group that meets every six months to discuss issues and trends affecting case management and ways case managers in all settings can collaborate to improve patient care, Boling says.
The coalition is led by CMSA and the Academy for Certified Case Managers.
After an exhaustive process that involved collecting and evaluating more than 150 separate definitions of case management, the Case Management Leadership Coalition (CMLC) has come up with a statement designed to help case managers explain what they do.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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