A PICC line allows the medications to quickly reach the source of infection—but unfortunately, it also provides an easy route for the patient to use illegal drugs to get high. And sending an active or recent substance abuser home with a central line of any kind presents legal and ethical risks.
Inpatient rehabilitation facilities are a valuable postacute option for patients with complex medical and rehabilitative needs. But if you’re planning on referring a patient to one of these facilities, it’s becoming more important to make sure he or she meets medical criteria for the placement before making a recommendation.
One of the most challenging barriers to patient health is often patients’ own behavior. Case managers encounter them daily: the patient who won’t follow the treatment plan, the patient who persists with unhealthy habits, or the patient who opts against making lifestyle changes that can improve his or her condition.
Discharges are a common place for lapses and failures to occur, but when they involve patients suffering from mental illness or substance abuse, they can be even more challenging. Although these complex patient cases may present sizable hurdles, it’s important that facilities take measures to ensure discharges in these instances follow both federal and state guidelines and help protect vulnerable patients whenever possible.
Joya is waiting at the airport in Norway for her plane to the U.S. when she makes a last-minute decision to purchase travel insurance. She reads the insurance policy and information and realizes it excludes preexisting conditions. Joya has an existing cardiac condition that she knows might void the policy, but she decides to be positive.
