By asking difficult questions early in a patient’s care about issues such as housing, food security, and neighborhood crime, case managers can combat common transition-related issues in high-cost or high-need patients.
Transitions of care are a time when lapses can occur and problems can arise. Transfers are one of those transitions, and asking the right questions can help ensure problems aren’t overlooked, including ones that could later interfere with quality.
Jerry and Bob are twins who, up until six months ago, lived with their mother. When she died suddenly and her home was foreclosed, the two brothers found themselves homeless. Neither of them has a job, and both are disabled: Jerry has a physical injury caused by a past construction job, and Bob has severe cardiac disease. On the coldest night of the fall season, Bob is stricken with severe chest pain that is unrelieved by oral nitroglycerin.
Many case managers have been working to forge ties with community groups in an effort to help patients maintain their health once they leave the hospital. But do these ties with community-based organizations help keep patients out of the hospital?
Sexual harassment in Hollywood has gotten much attention recently, but it’s far from the only industry where harassment is a problem. A recent analysis of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data for 1995 through 2016 showed that some 3,800 hospital employees filed sexual harassment complaints.
Historically, the social work profession resisted the change from manual documentation to template-based tools, but with the growing emphasis on quality and reducing hospital readmissions, social workers need to utilize case management assessments as a way to communicate risk and pertinent patient details.
CMS announced a new voluntary bundled payment model in January called Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced (BPCI Advanced). Bundled payments, like the ones established by BPCI Advanced, are designed to act as a carrot for healthcare organizations by offering them financial incentives to improve patient outcomes, better coordinate patient care, and rein in spending
