Hospital Case Management – March 1, 2004

March 1, 2004

• Case managers, utilization reviewers team for cost savings of $3.6 million

  By tracking length of stay and direct variable cost of care, the case management department at Covenant Health System, based in Knoxville, TN, was able to show a savings of $3.6 million in the first three quarters of last year and a denial rate of less than 1% at most of its facilities.

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• Physician champ helped gain acceptance of clinical pathway

  A physician champion made all the difference when Methodist Medical Center (MMC) in Oak Ridge, TN, started its CareTrax clinical pathway system in 1993, says Coletta Manning, RN, MHA, CPHQ.

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• Integrated CM system will make your job easier

  If your hospital isnt using case management software that is integrated with the rest of the hospitals information systems, you may be behind the curve, asserts Vicky Mahn-DiNicola, RN, MS, vice president of ACS Healthcare Solutions, a Tucson, AZ-based health care technology firm.

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• Critical Path Network: Type of data plotted determines which control chart to use

  Correct control chart selection is a critical part of creating a control chart, according to PQ Systems, an industry leader in the manufacturing of statistical process control (SPC) and quality control software based in Miamisburg, OH.

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• Ambulatory Care Quarterly: ED is hotbed for lawsuits; address risky conditions

  What happens in your emergency department (ED) when a patient shows up complaining that he still has that terrible headache you sent him home with six hours ago? Do staff label him a whiner and send him back out the door with some Tylenol?

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