All Entries Tagged With: "social workers"
A Salute to Case Management Social Workers
Happy Social Worker Month! The National Association of Social Workers’ theme for this year’s celebration is “Social Workers Change Futures.” This is indeed a very appropriate, accurate theme because social workers can certainly change the future for many patients.
At my hospital, social workers are a respected and key healthcare partner in providing appropriate discharge planning. They are relationship builders who bond with patients and families. They are experts in relationship development, problem-solving, and in coaching patients and/or families in coping with new life situations and illnesses. It is not uncommon for the patient and/or families to request a conference with our social workers to better understand community resources and the discharge plan.
Social workers bring a holistic approach to care collaboration. Our social workers communicate with physicians, nurses, case managers, and other healthcare providers in assessing, planning, and monitoring discharge plans for patients. They advocate for the patient and/or family in ensuring that the care team develops and executes an appropriate discharge plan. The key role of the social worker is ensuring that the discharge plan is safe and healthy. Thanks to the social workers, when a patient’s future changes, the patient is prepared for it.
So please honor your social workers, not just during social worker month, but throughout the year. They are the key to successful discharge planning and they indeed do have the capability to change the future for many patients.
Last chance to participate in the 2011 Case Management Monthly salary survey
We need your help. Please help us better understand your position by completing the 2011 Case Management Monthly Salary Survey. The survey results will be included in an upcoming issue of Case Management Monthly.
The link below will take you to the survey’s Web site; simply click on the link to answer the survey questions online. If the click-through does not work, please cut and paste the URL into the address bar of your browser.
This survey will close on Friday March 4.
Here’s the link to the survey:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22BSWADRZ5S/
Thank you for your time and assistance.
Associate editor
bamirault@hcpro.com
Do case managers communicate effectively?
The case manager’s main goal is coordinating care and collaborating with other members of the healthcare team. It is doing what is right for the patient, in the right setting, and in the most cost efficient manner. These goals require that case managers communicate effectively with patients and the appropriate healthcare providers.
Case managers spend time getting to know patients personally and through their medical records. This holistic approach gives them a full picture of the patient.
Admission case managers at Jennie Edmundson Hospital collect patient history, identify fall risks, and conduct medication reconciliation. They also conduct the initial case management environmental assessment.
Case managers and social workers discuss patients’ current condition and plan for discharge during daily morning huddles. Social workers and case managers then proactively discuss patients’ discharge plans with their physicians. This meeting affirms that everyone, including patients and their families, understands what is happening. We also conduct interdisciplinary rounds, during which social workers and case managers discuss patients with a larger group, including:
- Physician advisors
- Unit nurses
- Physical and respiratory therapy staff members
- Dieticians
- Diabetic educators
- Wound care nurses
- Pharmacists
Bedside nurses and case managers sometimes overlook the importance of daily communication with each other. Encourage bedside nurses to seek out their units’ case manager(s) daily to discuss changes in patients’ conditions and discharge plans. Bedside nurse sometimes may be missing crucial information that a case manager and/or social worker may have obtained from the patient’s physician.
As case managers and social workers communicate with patients and/or their families with respect to discharge planning, we must ensure that bedside nurses are also key participants. Bedside nurses provide education and discharge instructions to patients, so they must have all necessary information.
My facility encourages this type of communication. Do your case managers and/or social workers communicate with physicians and bedside nurses on a regular basis?
Proactive discharge planning and collaboration with community resources leads to discharge without readmission
With so much going on in healthcare today, it is difficult to sift through the complexity and know what to do and when. Healthcare professionals keep hearing about proactive discharge planning, collaboration of care, transition to home, and preventing readmissions, but do we know how to put all these ideas together in the right sequence to improve quality of care?
Improved patient care starts with relationships. Hospital case managers and social workers must work with community home healthcare agencies, nursing and skilled nursing facilities, and the insurance company utilization management resources. Let’s see how strong relationships help MaryJo (MJ) as she makes her way through an inpatient hospital stay.
Educating MJ
MJ is a 59-year-old female who works as an administrative secretary. She is married and has two grown children. MJ has insurance through her employer and has been in the hospital three times in the past seven months for recurrent exacerbation of her COPD. During this admission, MJ ’s case manager immediately begins to discuss discharge planning with MJ and at interdisciplinary rounds.
At the interdisciplinary rounds meeting, staff notes that MJ has never participated in pulmonary rehab. The case manager also speaks with MJ’s insurance company and discovers she does have benefits for pulmonary rehab and home healthcare services. The social worker works with the area home healthcare agencies and finds one with a well established COPD disease management program. MJ is tired of being in the hospital and agrees to participate in the program.
The primary nurse speaks with MJ and discovers that no one has explained how MJ’s prescribed treatment will help her. MJ admits that others have taught her the anatomy and physiology of her disease, but no one has told her why she must follow through with her treatments and what she can do to control her COPD.
Here they come: Two RACs post issues eligible for review
Editor’s note: My colleague, Andrea Kraynak, does a great job staying on top of all the RAC news over at the Revenue Cycle Institute blog. The following is round-up of some of the news she has covered recently in regards to issues eligible for RAC review.
Two of the four RACs have posted issues eligible for RAC review on their Web sites, meaning that RACs can begin auditing in those areas at any time.
Connolly, the RAC for region C, has posted the approved issues for South Carolina and Florida. No word yet on the other states and territories that Connolly covers. However, many experts are advising providers to pay attention to these issues, regardless of whether they are within the Connolly’s jurisdiction.
Kimberly Anderwood Hoy, JD, CPC, director of Medicare and compliance at HCPro, Inc., says providers outside Connolly’s jurisdiction may want to review the issues as a clue to what RACs might audit in their area. However, she notes that providers should anticipate that RACs will audit for different issues for different jurisdictions although there certainly could be some overlap.
Connolly will focus on the following six issues for both states: [more]
Clinical Social Worker (CSW) or Registered Nurse (RN)?
Effective working relationships between nurses and social workers are the foundation of effective patient care management. Both disciplines bring value and there own unique perspective to the patient/family situation. But philosophical differences, and unclear role delineations can sometimes disrupt collaboration among the two.
HCPro has offered two audio conferences devoted to this subject. Where do you sit on the case management spectrum? Are you an RN or a LCSW?
