Hospital Case Management 2010-04-01

Ensure that patients are in the correct status up front

From the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) perspective, the saying "ignorance is bliss" does not apply when it comes to a patient's status.

FAQs on using Condition Code 44

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services web site. https://questions.cms.hhs.gov.

Discharge plan reduces LOS for long-stay patients

In the first year of Stony Brook University (NY)Medical Center care management department's interdisciplinary project to reduce the length of stay for long-stay patients, aggregate patients days dropped from 4,400 to just more than 3,000 in a year, resulting in a revenue opportunity of approximately $4 million.

Critical Path Network: Focusing on appropriate levels of care, hospital lowers length of stay

When California Pacific Medical Center was named a top hospital for patient quality and safety for the fourth year in a row by the Leapfrog Group, the award cited the hospital's length-of-stay initiatives.

Critical Path Network: Hospital, LTACH focus on awaiting transplants

Faced with a growing population of patients with heart failure who are awaiting a transplant and a shortage of intensive care beds, The Methodist Hospital in Houston is partnering with one local long-term acute care hospital in a program to care for patients with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD).

Critical Path Network: Elderly heart failure patients get help at home

Elderly heart failure patients who are at risk for rehospitalization are getting help following their treatment plan after discharge through a collaborative effort of The Methodist Hospital in Houston and Care for Elders, a community coalition of 80 private and public agencies that develops and tests pilot projects serving older adults.

Discharging to rehab facilities just got harder

A new rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) makes it imperative that case managers and/or discharge planners be familiar with new coverage requirements for inpatient rehabilitation facilities and that they begin discharge planning earlier with inpatient stay, says Jackie Birmingham, RN, MSN, MS, vice president of regulatory monitoring and clinical leadership at Curaspan Health Group.

Nurses take ownership of rads discrepancies

A new process for managing radiological discrepancies in the ED at Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory, NC, has significantly improved the efficiency with which notifications are received and acted upon.

Study: Hospital patients lack knowledge

A new study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine highlights the problem of hospital patients being unaware of their own medications.1

Hospital Case Management – April 1, 2010

April 1, 2010