Case Management Advisor – May 1, 2015
May 1, 2015
View Issues
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To improve population health, CMs find “it takes a community”
As the Affordable Care Act nudges health care organizations toward preventive care and efficient, holistic solutions, some case managers are finding that they can do more for their patients if they seek help from all available community resources.
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Case managers work with doctors, other providers to improve care quality
Linking hospital providers with community physicians is challenging for transitional case management, but one organization has found that having the case managers look out for patients both in and out of the hospital helps keep hospital readmission rates at a low range — 3% to 5% — for a senior population.
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Case management can work hand-in-hand with patient advocacy
As health systems, payers, employers, and even unions look for case management-style models for improving their populations’ health, some are hiring RNs to serve in a patient advocate role.
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New type of ED unit focuses on the most critically ill patients, decompressing ED
Much of the discussion surrounding emergency medicine seems to focus on how to keep lower-acuity patients out of the ED, or at least how to move them through to discharge faster. While it is true that many EDs see a high percentage of low-acuity or fast-track patients, there are also EDs that are overwhelmed with patients at the other end of the acuity spectrum. The University of Michigan Health System’s (UMHS) adult ED in Ann Arbor is a case in point.
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Nurse fatigue a ‘huge’ threat to patient safety, but can be addressed
When fatigue is addressed in the healthcare workplace, attention often goes first to physicians and particularly medical residents who are sleep-deprived and overworked. Increasingly, risk managers are focusing on the patient safety threats posed by nurses and other staff members who are too tired to do their jobs properly.