Hospital Case Management – January 1, 2003

January 1, 2003

• Old hat or cutting edge? The state of the art of clinical pathways

  Every year, Hospital Case Managements reader survey asks case managers what they like most and least about the newsletter. And every year, readers variously compliment and criticize us for the extent to which we cover clinical pathways.

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• Comparative performance data can be change agent

  One of the major challenges facing case managers is what to consider when selecting comparative performance data. But that is just the first of several questions that must be addressed, says Patrice Spath, BA, RHIT, a consultant in health care quality with Brown-Spath & Associates in Forest Grove, OR. It also is important to identify and correct serious flaws in utilization and outcome data, she adds.

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• CMSA overhauls case management standards

  The Case Management Society of America (CMSA) in Little Rock, AR, has revised its Standards of Practice to reflect changes in the health care system and the evolving role of case managers within that system.

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• How to know when you’re facing an ethical dilemma

  When youre confronted with an issue that just doesnt feel right, ask yourself: Am I truly doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason?

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• HIPAA privacy regulation sparks varied solutions

  Hospitals are running the gamut of possible solutions as they struggle to interpret the provisions of the the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rule, says Tony Mogavero, director of physician services for St. Petersburg, FL-based John Putnam International, a company that provides web-based and teacher-led education for access personnel.

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• News Briefs

  CMS offers database for record disclosures; Web site answers FAQs about HIPAA.

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• Discharge Planning Advisor: ‘Everybody wins’ as CM, home health join forces

  A couple of years ago, Lisa Zerull, RN, MS, the force behind the dramatically successful community nurse case management (CNCM) program at Valley Health System in Winchester, VA, faced a new challenge: She was informed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) that it would begin surveying the program based on the agencys home care standards, in conjunction with the health systems home health program.

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• Discharge Planning Advisor: Solutions needed for prescription drug problem

  Making sure patients without an insurance plan for prescription drugs get the medications they need is an increasing challenge, case managers and discharge planners tell Discharge Planning Advisor.

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• Discharge Planning Advisor: Final outpatient PPS rule increases spending

  The 1,000-page final outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) rule, which takes effect this month, provides the congressionally mandated inflationary update and increases overall spending, but still pays hospitals only 83 cents for every dollar spent on outpatient care, the Chicago-based American Hospital Association (AHA) points out.

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• Discharge Planning Advisor: Patient records linked as part of warning system

  Twenty million ambulatory care patient records will be connected as part of an early warning system for terrorism-related illness outbreaks.

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• Critical Path Network: ‘Hands-on’ application tracks nursing care, results

  A software application developed by the University of Michigan School of Nursing in Ann Arbor offers the promise of providing a means to collect comparable data for nursing care in the areas of diagnosis, intervention, and outcomes, resulting in far more accurate information both for self-evaluation and benchmarking across health care organizations.

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• Critical Path Network: Hospital web sites gain in popularity

  The likelihood of a hospital having a web site grew from roughly six in 10 in 2000 to seven in 10 during 2001, according to the Chicago-based American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey of Hospitals.

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• Critical Path Network: IOM to study alternative, complementary medicine

  The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and 16 Federal cosponsors have unveiled plans for an Institute of Medicine (IOM) study of the scientific and policy implications of the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by the American public.

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• Patient Safety Alert Supplement

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