Q: If a long-term acute hospital or a skilled-nursing facility isn’t necessary for a patient, but staying at home isn’t a plausible or healthy situation, where are some other options for patients to go after a hospital discharge?
A recent study in the Annals of Family Medicine examined the challenges of implementing electronic health (EHR) tools for collecting, reviewing, and acting on social determinants of health data in community health centers.
Increasingly, case managers are turning to mobile applications to help patients better manage chronic health conditions at home. While apps can be a valuable tool for patients, they can also bring numerous drawbacks, including adoption challenges among less technologically savvy individuals.
Q: Case managers used to evaluate their work in terms of tasks completed or length of stay (LOS). Now that LOS has more than a financial meaning, what are some meaningful outcomes case managers can use to set goals for their work?
The emergency department (ED) should be considered a patient unit, and the case manager and social worker should triage throughout the day. They must work to improve patient flow in the ED and provide better quality of care for the patient.
How can an ICU case manager coordinate the final care of an emergency room patient who never regains consciousness and the only thing known about him is his name?
