What happens when a patient who requires inpatient rehab care refuses transfer due to concerns about pets staying home alone? This complex case addresses the ways a case manager can handle these tricky situations.
A director working to manage her institution’s length of stay is usually aware of situations that can make a patient stay longer. Among these situations is a patient who is need of guardianship.
It’s no secret that social factors can create sizable barriers for case managers who are working to prevent readmissions, plan for discharges, and meet length of stay targets. Unfortunately, government regulators often don’t factor these issues in when they are looking at quality measures. But that is starting to change.
Affording prescription drugs can be a challenge for many patients. Even for patients with insurance, cost sharing and copays can add up. To head off these potential problems, case managers are often tasked with identifying affordability issues and finding solutions for patients to help ensure they can comply with discharge recommendations.
Case management isn’t what it used to be. That much everyone seems to agree on. But is the profession’s recent evolution driving away new recruits, or is it making the field more attractive to those looking for a challenge? That’s less clear.
Much of the population health model is relatively new. Some of the work is based on other models, particularly the public health model. We know how important an efficient case management structure is to the success of the population health model. How does an organization not only change the model of case management but sustain the change and continue to evaluate its success?
Case managers today face significant challenges when working with patients who abuse opioids. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s 2016 figures, some 2 million Americans had a substance use disorder involving prescription pain medicine in 2015, and an additional 591,000 had a heroin use disorder.
A national coverage determination (NCD) related to implanted cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) is causing some confusion. The NCD was issued on February 15, and the changes, while billed as “relatively minimal,” may actually require significant process alterations.
Some patients can now get more than just a prescription at their local pharmacy. Two healthcare organizations, BayCare Health System, Inc. in Clearwater, Florida, and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, have announced separate but similar partnerships with Publix and Walgreens that allow patients to visit specially designed telemedicine kiosks where they can video conference with a doctor to get a diagnosis and treatment for non-urgent medical problems.
