Hospital Case Management – June 1, 2013
June 1, 2013
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Be ready for the discharge planning surveyor worksheets
As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) moves to reimbursing hospitals for quality, the agency is paying more attention to discharge planning and is pilot testing worksheets to review how hospitals comply with the Medicare Conditions of Participation as they relate to discharge planning. -
HCM Reader Survey Now Online
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Reach out to patients beyond the hospital stay
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) new emphasis on discharge planning makes it imperative for case managers to start discharge planning on Day 1 and create a discharge plan that takes into account what happened to patients before admission, says Jackie Birmingham, RN, BSN, MS, CMAC, a nurse educator based in Suffield, CT. -
Barrier reduction teams smooth throughput
After New York Presbyterian Hospital developed barrier reduction teams on each service to determine reasons for delays in the discharge process and come up with solutions, the average length-of-stay hospitalwide dropped by half a day and patient satisfaction scores increased. -
Team follows at-risk patients after discharge
At UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, NC, a dedicated team of inpatient case managers, emergency department case managers, and pharmacists evaluates all patients who are potentially at risk for readmissions, makes sure they have everything they need for a successful transition, and follows them for 30 days after discharge regardless of their discharge destination. -
Nurses handle most admissions, discharges
When patients are admitted to or discharged from St. Johns Hospital in Springfield, IL, in many cases the process is completed by a team of nurses with the sole responsibility of admitting and discharging patients, freeing up the floor nurses to provide care for patients. -
Hospital achieves 50% reduction in falls
A hospital in Fargo, ND, focused on preventable falls in its cardiac telemetry unit and is seeing admirable results. After a year of effort, falls were reduced by 25% at the end of 2012, and then the hospital hit a 50% reduction barely a month later. -
Case Management Insider: Managing Length of Stay Using Patient Flow Part 4
In the last three Parts of Managing Patient Flow, we reviewed all the issues and elements associated with understanding patient flow in the hospital setting. This month we will review some examples of patient flow report cards that you can use to track and trend your patient flow processes as well as identify performance improvement opportunities.