Hospital Case Management – December 1, 2010
December 1, 2010
View Archives Issues
-
Being prepared is your best defense when RACs request records
Now that the permanent Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program has gone into high gear, hospitals can lessen their vulnerability to losing revenue if they know how to respond and what to expect, says Deborah Hale, CCS, president of Administrative Consultant Services LLC, a health care consulting firm based in Shawnee, OK. -
PEPPER can help you focus on likely RAC targets
Analyze the data in your hospital's Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER) to identify areas where your hospital may be vulnerable to denials from the Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs), suggests Deborah Hale, CCS, president, Administrative Consultant Services LLC, a Shawnee, OK, health care consulting firm. -
Model lets CMs concentrate on care coordination
By developing a case management model that frees RN case managers to do what they do best coordinate care Fauquier Hospital in Warrenton, VA, has reduced its average length of stay without affecting the readmission rate. -
Critical Path Network: Nurses, CMs focus on special needs of elderly
As a case manager on the congestive heart failure unit at Danbury Hospital, Karen Morgan, RN, MSN, CCM, RN-BC, often manages the care of elderly patients. -
Critical Path Network: Listen to your elderly patients for plan of care
As Karen Morgan, RN, MSN, CCM, RN-BC, makes rounds with the rest of the treatment team on Danbury Hospital's heart failure unit, she uses her knowledge as a certified gerontology nurse to point out the special considerations that the elderly patients on the unit may need. -
Critical Path Network: With elders, be cautious with fluid resuscitation
Aggressive fluid resuscitation, which normally would be used in younger trauma patients, potentially could do serious harm to an elder patient, warns Rhyan Weaver, RN, BSN, CEN, clinical supervisor in the ED at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, AZ. -
Critical Path Network: Planetree model focuses on entire person
In the Planetree model, staff don't treat patients like they'd want to be treated. Instead, they find out how the patient wants to be treated, says Linda Sharkey, RN, MSN, vice president of patient care services and chief nurse executive at Fauquier Hospital. -
Ambulatory Care Quarterly: Where do EDs remain challenged?
Every summer The Joint Commission issues a list of those standards hospitals find most difficult to comply with. Among those challenging standards are three that experts say most directly impact the ED: -
Ambulatory Care Quarterly: Involve clinicians in egress plans
There are any number of reasons why an ED and its hospital would have difficulty complying with The Joint Commission standard regarding egress, says Diana S. Contino, RN, MBA, FAEN, senior manager of health care with Deloitte Consulting in Los Angeles. -
Ambulatory Care Quarterly: Cell phone pix: A new diagnostic tool
Initial data on the use of cell phone photos of injuries, taken by the patients themselves in the ED at The George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC, offers the promise that they might have the potential to speed treatment without sacrificing diagnostic accuracy. -
Ambulatory Care Quarterly: Nurses, patients like new approach
Nurses and patients in the ED at The George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC, have responded positively to a new study that allows patients to e-mail cell phone photos of their injuries to ED physicians prior to their treatment.