Hospital Case Management: Essential for Effective Patient Care

In the United States, hospital visits continues to rise every year. In a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it showed that hospitals received a total of 125.7 million outpatient department visits in 2011 alone. This means that 41 people in every 100 made an outpatient visit. This has significantly increased over the years, including the percentage of patients who had overnight hospital stays. With more baby boomers reaching the age wherein they can already qualify for Medicare, the numbers for outpatient visits and patients who need hospitalization will continue to go up. This makes proper hospital case management all the more important.

Coordination of all stages of patient care

Healthcare case managers play major roles in hospital operations, from the moment patients enter the facility to the moment they leave. These managers take part before the admission through the post-discharge processes, manage the cases of chronically ill patients in primary care, monitor hospitalized patients, and oversee long-term care facility residents. Due to their involvement in all patient care proceedings, hospital operations can experience severe setbacks without their help.

Improving quality and quantity of health care service delivery

At its core, case management is a collaborative process involving the assessment, planning, monitoring, and evaluation of health treatments, services, and options that will satisfy patients. The goal of case managers is to communicate and use available resources to deliver quality yet cost-effective results.

Better quality service that benefits both hospitals and patients

Throughout the years, evidence of the impressive qualitative and quantitative improvements of case managers in these health care facilities continues to pile up. Whether for outpatients or acute care, these professionals contribute largely to proper hospital resource utilization and cost reduction, while they also make certain that each patient receives quality care.