CMM asked hospital case management professionals what tasks their facilities expect them to perform and how those responsibilities affect their productivity in the CMM Job Responsibilities Survey. Nearly 500 case managers, discharge planners, social workers, clinical documentation improvement (CDI) specialists, and appeals specialists responded to the survey. Responses broke down as follows:
CMS has seen an increase in the number of extended observation stays and wants to know why. That was the reason it gave for holding an August 24 listening session regarding the matter. The reason providers misuse observation services may not have been as interesting as the solution proposed by some callers—namely, that CMS should abolish observation services.
As the case manager’s role has matured, specific best practices have proven to be a valuable conduit to the provision of care coordination, outcome achievement, and quality of care.
Your incident response plan should be in strict compliance with HITECH requirements, says Kate Borten, CISSP, CISM, president of The Marblehead Group in Marblehead, MA.
Q. We received a request under the California Public Records Act from the local newspaper for copies of incident reports of injuries to staff by psychiatric patients. County counsel stated that only patient information that is specifically made confidential by law can be redacted.
