Hospital Case Management – December 1, 2007
December 1, 2007
View Issues
-
MS-DRG system offers opportunities, potential changes in the bottom line
The adoption of the new MS-DRG system, coupled with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) move to cost-based relative weights is likely to have a significant financial impact on hospitals, says Deborah Hale, CSS, president of Administrative Consultant Services Inc., a health care consulting firm based in Shawnee, OK. -
How it all plays out: See how coding affects reimbursement
Accurate documentation always has been important but it can have an even bigger impact on reimbursement with the new MS-DRG system, according to Deborah Hale, CSS, president of Administrative Consultant Services Inc., a health care consulting firm based in Shawnee, OK. -
Get physicians in on improving documentation
Adapting to the sweeping changes in reimbursement mandated by the new MS-DRG system may be like suddenly having to drive on the left-hand side of the road, says Bert Amison, managing director for health care advisory services at KPMG. -
Quality initiative slashes occurrences of VAP
A team approach to quality measures has resulted in a significant drop in ventilator-associated pneumonia for patients in the intensive care unit at Columbus Regional Hospital (IN) and helped the hospital earn the 2007 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize. -
Critcal Path Network: Hospitalwide throughput initiative lowers diversion by 71%
Faced with patients waiting for a bed for hours in the emergency department and an increase in time on ED diversion, Southern Ocean County Hospital in Manahawkin, NJ, began a hospital-wide initiative to improve throughput. -
Critcal Path Network: No increase in appeals reported with new IM rules
Despite fears that issuing the new Important Message from Medicare regulations would result in a spate of patients appealing their discharge, hospital case managers report that appeals have not increased and that the requirement for issuing the notice within 48 hours of discharge actually helps staff focus on the discharge plan. -
Guest Column: Honing your role as care coordination consultant
It's common for case managers to say, "Oh, I wish I were a consultant." Yet, case managers already have jobs in which they do much of what a consultant does. -
Ambulatory Care Quarterly: Initiative sparked by close call with DNR wristband
A "near-miss" in which a nurse at a Pennsylvania hospital incorrectly placed a "do not resuscitate" (DNR) wristband on a patient has prompted an Ohio initiative aimed at implementing statewide standardization of colored wristbands.