Hospital Case Management – July 1, 2006
July 1, 2006
View Issues
-
Creativity is the key in discharge planning for undocumented immigrants
Hospital discharge planners must use their ingenuity to find a discharge destination for undocumented workers who need post-acute care. -
Social worker facilitates referrals to shelters
Having a dedicated social worker who works with local homeless shelters to place patients has significantly reduced the length of stay for homeless patients at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia. -
Initiative cuts ventilator days by 50%, improves care
A Six Sigma initiative to improve care for ventilator patients has decreased ventilators days by more than 50% at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL. -
Critical Path Network: Patient flow initiatives slash average LOS
Three years ago, the average length of stay (LOS) for admitted ED patients was about 7.5 hours at the 17th Street campus of New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, NC. Today, it is down to just more than five hours. -
Critical Path Network: In-house 'Access Center' relieves ED bed burden
The creation of an "Access Center" to handle interhospital transfer coordination and unscheduled admissions at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, OK, has vastly improved the movement of patients into beds. -
Critical Path Network: Are you collecting data you don't really need?
In the process of collecting restraint data, you learn that certain physicians are not signing daily orders. Other data being collected show that patient education is being documented 97 times out of 100. -
Critical Path Network: CMS extends coverage for some O2 patients
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will extend coverage for the home use of oxygen to Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in a CMS-approved clinical trial sponsored by the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute. -
Critical Path Network: No link between higher spending and better care
While the amount of money Medicare spends on chronically ill patients varies greatly from state to state, researchers at Dartmouth Medical School found no correlation between higher spending and better health. -
Model of care improves outcomes, ADLs for elderly
When older, frail patients are hospitalized at Akron City Hospital in Akron, OH, they're likely to be placed on a home-like unit with carpeted floors, a common area with a parlor and a stocked kitchen their families can use, better lighting, and furniture designed so older people can easily get in and out of it. -
Discharge Planning Adivsor: Proposed Medicare discharge rule faces criticism
A new rule being proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and drawing criticism from case managers who have reviewed it would require hospitals to alert all Medicare patients 24 hours before discharge that their costs probably won't be covered if they stay longer, and that they have until noon the next day to request a review of the discharge decision. -
Patient Safety Alert supplement