The Case Manager's Survival Guide: Winning Strategies for Clinical Practice

This practical, "hands on" guide includes vital information every case manager and administrator of a case management program needs to be successful. It focuses on the "nuts and bolts" aspects of case management including planning, implementation, and evaluation of successful case management programs, case manager roles and skills, the case management process of patient care, training, education, credentialing, and certification of case managers, preparing for case manager roles including the job interview process, reimbursement systems, documentation, developing case management plans, JCAHO and quality consideration, measuring outcomes and successes, and legal issues. It discusses the operations of case management programs based on the authors' first hand experience.

* Includes Tips Boxes which list important tools and techniques to be used "on the job" by case managers and administrators of case management programs. * Offers practical and thorough descriptions of the roles and responsibilities of case managers which can be applied to a variety of care settings. * Provides specific answers to questions and problems which may arise during the day-to-day activities of case managers. * Acts as a quick, hands-on reference for enhancing the skills of case managers and improving the chances for success of case management programs. It is the "at hand" consultant for all those involved in case management. * Translates theory into practice and makes case management easily understood and successfully implemented. * Suggests a process for variance and outcomes data collection, analysis, and reporting. * Integrates case management with the standards of care of regulatory agencies, i.e., JCAHO, and presents strategies for reducing the risk for legal liability/litigation. * Offers a step-by-step process for developing case management plans, e.g., clinical pathways, multidisciplinary action plans. * Describes and discusses the various applications of case management programs of patient care delivery. * Includes full-size forms, reports, tools, and examples of case management plans from different care settings, which can be photocopied and used by any health care institution. * Provides a glossary of the most common terms used in case management and managed care. * Written specifically for case managers and administrators in the clinical setting by authors with first hand experiences in case management.

Toni G. Cesta, PhD, RN; Hussein A. Tahan, MS, RN, CNA; Lois F. Fink, MA, RNC