Case Management Advisor Medical Newsletter

Patient Activation Measure Guides Education and Realistic Goal-Setting

As case managers work harder to meet their organizations’ patient engagement goals — particularly in the value-based care model — evidence-based tools can help them succeed. One such tool is the Patient Activation Measure, a scale that describes four stages of activation. Research showed the tool to be a valid and reliable instrument to measure activation and to help patients individualize care plans.

How the Patient Activation Measure Works

The Patient Activation Measure can help case managers discover how engaged patients are with their care and what types of services and assistance they may need.

Case Managers, Nurses, Staff Need Help to Overcome Occupational Trauma

Since the COVID-19 pandemic forced a shutdown in the United States, nurses, case managers, and other healthcare professionals have faced high levels of stress, burnout, and occupational trauma. A year after the pandemic began, more than half of nurses said they have felt exhausted within the previous two weeks.

10 Simple Steps to Protect Staff’s Mental Health

In the pandemic and post-pandemic times, case management leaders can take many steps to help their staff prevent mental health issues, like trauma, stress, burnout, post-traumatic stress disorder, and others.

COVID-19 Pandemic Put Pioneering Capacity Command Center to the Test

No knew the world would be in the grips of COVID-19 in 2016. That is when Johns Hopkins Hospital unveiled a first-of-its-kind Capacity Command Center (CCC), a high-tech control room designed to apply all the latest analytical tools to bed management, patient transfers, and surge planning. CCC leaders have spent the last five years working around the clock to optimize patient flow and anticipate any potential bottlenecks. But there is no question the concept has been put to the test by pandemic conditions. How did it fare?

Rapid Mortality Reviews Improve Quality and Patient Safety

Staff at a California hospital found rapid mortality reviews conducted soon after a patient death resulted in the treatment team identifying opportunities to improve the patient’s care in more than 40% of the cases. The team conducting the rapid mortality reviews concluded this technique can offer advantages over the standard retrospective case reviews, provider surveys, and structured morbidity and mortality conferences.