AMA Discharge and Case Management Responsibility
AMA Discharge and Case Management Responsibility: An Ethical and Compliance Quandary
A patient is admitted to the hospital and the physician and treatment team recommendation is clear: the patient would benefit from being discharged to a skilled nursing facility (SNF). However, the patient adamantly refuses and only wishes to go home. Does the physician have the right to request that the patient leave the hospital against medical advice or AMA?
There is no I in Team
Case Management is a team sport, and like in all sports, there is no I in team, and the team members have to respect each other and work together. In this article, I would like to discuss the benefits and strategies of incorporating multidisciplinary perspectives, such as social workers, pharmacists, physicians, therapists, psychologists, and the other disciplines that comprise the multidisciplinary healthcare workforce.
Understanding Credentials in Case Management: Certificate, Certification, and Fellowship
In the field of case management, understanding the nuances of various professional credentials – certificates, certifications, and fellowships – is crucial for your career development. Each serves a different purpose and caters to varying levels of experience and career aspirations. The Case Management Institute sheds light on these distinctions, helping professionals like you make informed decisions for your careers.
Effective Communication Strategies with Clients
Effective communication strategies for case managers is to maintain clear and open lines of effective communication between patients and families, providers, payers, and others with whom they interact according to their role and function. Each takes a different skill that needs to be honed continuously.
Case Managers must foster an environment where all stakeholders feel comfortable sharing information, expressing concerns, and asking questions. This type of transparent communication builds trust among team members and helps prevent miscommunication that can lead to poor outcomes.
Understanding the Path to Becoming a Nurse Case Manager: Traditional Degrees vs. Specialized Courses
The journey to becoming a nurse case manager involves the pivotal decision about education and training. While traditional university degrees are becoming more available, specialized courses like those offered by the Case Management Institute present an alternative path. This article explores these two routes, focusing on the financial and time commitments involved.
Questions and Tips to Improve Your Documentation!
The importance of documentation cannot be overemphasized. In this post, I wanted to share some questions and tips to improve your documentation. As nurse case managers, we learned about documentation during our training, but with technology taking over healthcare, our documentation is more important than ever.
Take some time to think about how you document. Is it clear? Does it help the healthcare team coordinate care and ensure streamlined communication? Could a colleague pick up your cases if you had to take time off? Here are some points to review and see how you can improve your documentation.
Benefits of Belonging to Your Professional Organization
Case Managers are professionals from various disciplines. As professionals, we have a responsibility to be a cut above. We must adhere to a code of conduct and ethical standards, and participate in professional development activities, including Belonging to Your Professional Organization
To meet each of these responsibilities, belonging to a professional organization is critical as professional organizations have the responsibility of keeping the workforce up to date as the industry changes.
In the area of case management, we have several professional organizations that case managers can belong to. Most people decide on which organization they will belong to by the sector they are in. Here are a few that you can consider:
The Ethical Conundrum of Healthcare Ethics Committees
The Ethical Conundrum of Healthcare Ethics Committees – Ethics committees have been a condition of Joint Commission accreditation since 1992, yet there is massive variation in their implementation and use. They should not replace the dialogues of interprofessional team members with patients, families, or each other.
The ONE tool that will help pass the CCM Exam
Recently, I was emailed a question from a case manager who was preparing to sit for the CCMC Exam for the 2nd time. I decided to write this article as it is a common question. his questions from a case manager who is preparing to take the CCM Exam for the 2nd time. She is searching for the ONE tool that will help her pass. In my answer, I try to tell her that there is no magic tool. She has purchased a number of tools. Now she has to do the work to understand the material so that she can answer the questions on the exam by critically thinking.
To Post or Not to Post?
The discharge planning process always moved quickly, but today it’s on steroids! Case managers face intense pressure to quickly transition patients to that next level of care, or home. Whether you case manage for a hospital, an MCO, or a community-based agency, you need information when you need it! That means you need a space to ask questions that provide responses “in the moment” and that is often not the workplace! Social media has become the fastest way for case managers and other healthcare professionals to quickly get information on what resource to use, and when!
More and more new case managers are entering the workforce than ever before, and their onboarding happens at warp speed. They commonly ping “friends” or tag “connections for discharge planning and other resources, from treatment and provider recommendations to specific home health agencies and skilled nursing homes. Complex patient circumstances become an opportunity for colleagues to weigh in on the management of everything from addiction and family dynamics to those “tough to place” patients, prescription drug access, and other psychosocial circumstances. After all, there’s no harm in asking for this information, right? WRONG!