Hospital Case Management – June 1, 2010
June 1, 2010
View Issues
-
Case management role is likely to expand under health care reform
As health care reform rolls out, hospitals will be under more pressure to deliver care faster and more efficiently with better outcomes, coordinating care while patients are still in the hospital, and ensuring a smooth transition to the next level of care. And that's where case managers can make a difference, experts say. -
Report patient safety lapses in your hospital
Hospital case managers are involved with patients from admission through the entire episode of care and discharge, which puts them in a position to spot patient safety issues and work on ways to prevent them, says John Banja, PhD, professor of rehabilitation medicine, medical ethicist at Emory University's Center for Ethics and director of the Section on Ethics in Research at Emory's Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute. -
Orientation sessions help families in LTACs
Recognizing that the transition between the short-term acute care hospital and a long-term acute care hospital (LTAC) is difficult for patients and families, Mesquite Specialty Hospital in Dallas has begun weekly orientation sessions to help family members understand what an LTAC is and how the services a patient will receive there are different from what happens in the short-term acute care hospital. -
Critical Path Network: Outreach program reduces readmissions for HF
Readmissions among all heart failure patients dropped by 50% in the first year of Saddleback Memorial Medical Center's comprehensive heart failure program, which focuses on a smooth transition between the hospital and the community. -
Critical Path Network: Center dedicated to patients over age 65
The nation's first senior emergency center, opened by Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, MD, is specifically tailored to meet the needs of a growing population of adults and provides care that goes beyond the typical emergency department assessment and treatment. -
Ambulatory Care Quarterly: 'Attitude adjustment' is key to ED success
In the face of steadily increasing volumes (13,000 between 2008 and 2009), the emergency department (ED) at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, MD, has improved all of its operating statistics, achieving a door-to-bed time of three minutes and a door-to-doc time of 21 minutes. -
Ambulatory Care Quarterly: 'Line at the door' is tackled first
When the ED leadership team at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, MD, set out to improve throughput, the first thing they tackled was the line at the door, says Clark Willis, MD, medical director. -
Ambulatory Care Quarterly: Wait time too long? Reduce risks this way
To reduce legal risks, the best strategy is to "show diligence," says Linda M. Stimmel, JD, a partner with the Dallas-based law firm of Stewart Stimmel. -
Ambulatory Care Quarterly: ED cuts LWBS from 5% to 0.5%
Recognizing that ED wait times and throughput are affected by the entire hospital, the leaders at King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, KY, engaged all the departments that interface with the ED and slashed the rate at which ED patients leave before treatment from 5% to 0.5%. -
Ambulatory Care Quarterly: Other units can 'rescue' the ED
The decrease in the rate of ED patients leaving before treatment at King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, KY, from 5% to 0.5% was not achieved by the ED alone. It took a concerted effort on the part of all of the major departments that interface with the ED.