Q: At times, case managers with nursing backgrounds are being asked to fill in and assume patient care roles during the COVID-19 pandemic. What should case managers do if they do not feel comfortable they can succeed in the roles they've been assigned?
As hospitals across the country scramble to keep up with an influx of COVID-19 patients, while simultaneously experiencing critical shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), staff, and testing supplies, case managers are being increasingly pulled into the fray.
COVID-19 was officially classified as a global pandemic on March 11 by the World Health Organization (WHO). The rate of fatality varies by age group, with the elderly being more at risk. The statistical projections by the Society of Critical Care Medicine anticipate that approximately 4.8 million people will be hospitalized for COVID-19 in the United States. Some mathematical models predict that this new virus will infect over half the U.S. population.
CMS issued a waiver on March 13 designed to help hospitals and other healthcare facilities better respond to the surge in demand placed on them by the COVID-19 pandemic. The waiver allows CMS to bypass traditional rules, including Conditions of Participation when necessary, and aims to help organizations move patients through levels of care more quickly to free up needed hospital beds for critically ill COVID-19 patients.
