Q&A: Workplace efficiency

Q: What helps case management professionals be the most efficient during their scheduled time at work? 

A: Case management is a time-sensitive, fast-paced job that could take 24 hours/day. Like any job, one gets more efficient at the different components over a period of time. There are some adjuncts to models that help case managers and social workers become more efficient. These are: 

• Timing and scheduling of the workday. 
• Use of case management assistants/technicians. Case management assistants are hired to help with faxing (often from the clinical areas), phoning, and data entry. They work under the direction of a case manager or social worker.
• Access to e-mail, cell phone, internet, and organizer functions, ideally all in one device.
• Automation through information systems and case management software, which promises to decrease work time and might even decrease the need for some FTEs. There are products specifically for UR, discharge planning, and clinical documentation improvement program (CDIP). There are products and platforms that connect other products. There are fewer products for care management.
• Social workers meeting families as a group, such as in the ICU; scheduling appointment times with families.

For more information, see Case Management Models: Best Practices for Health Systems and ACOs, 2nd edition.

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