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Welcome to the case management learning portal, where it is our business to keep you informed. In this section you will find the latest headlines, trends and studies that bear importance on the practice and the industry. In addition, you will find a fleet of articles intended to keep you current on the issues and outcomes that impact your practice on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Industry experts and seasoned professionals contribute their acute insight on professional and clinical topics alike. Visit with our experts now and secure the strength of your work in the future.

Healing the Brain

Catastrophic | Monday, 7 June 2010

Routine, Structure and Environmental Considerations for Patients with Brain Injury Imagine your day without any structure, routine, balance or flow: your world would feel out of control. When you get out of sync with your routine (think about when your in-laws visit or when you lose your keys and leave the house late), you become irritable but naturally take steps to adapt and rectify the situation. People with brain injury (BI) have difficulty adapting to disrupted routines. Impairments in memory, initiation, problem solving, organization and planning are common after BI, and providing daily predictable routines and structure allow people with BI more opportunities for success in their daily lives. This article will discuss the benefits of a daily routine for people with BI, provide suggestions for building and adapting these routines, and give tips for patients, caregivers and case managers to successfully implement these ...

The Overlooked Brain Disease

Long-Term Care | Wednesday, 1 September 2010

Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus Is Oft-Mischaracterized The term hydrocephalus comes from the Greek words “hydro” meaning water and “cephalus” meaning head, leading the condition to be referred to by laypersons as “water on the brain.” However, the primary characteristic of normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is chronic and excessive accumulation of cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) in the ventricles of the brain. Epidemiology The classic triad of gait difficulties, urinary incontinence, and mental decline that are the hallmark of NPH was first described by Adams and Hakim in 1965. There are no definitive statistics for the prevalence of NPH in the United States. Some experts estimate that up to 750,000 Americans may have NPH. NPH may be the cause for up to 5 percent of dementia diagnoses. Population-based studies have estimated the prevalence of NPH to be about 0.5 percent in those over 65 years old, with an incidence of about 5.5 patients per 100,000 people per ...

Managing Multiple Sclerosis

Disease Management | Wednesday, 1 September 2010

Clay Walker Muses on MS and His Steadfast Commitment to Treatment Since the mid-1990s, Clay Walker has achieved an incredible amount of success as a country music artist. His songs have run to the top of the Billboard charts on six separate occasions. In all, he’s sung and songcrafted his way onto the Billboard singles chart 31 times during a stretch that has garnered four platinum albums and two others that hit gold. His latest album, She Won’t Be Lonely Long, released this past June, is off to a strong start, having hit number five on the top country album charts. Through all of Walker’s commercial success over the past decade and a half, he has had to manage a disease that hit him suddenly in 1996 as he was fresh off of establishing a name for himself, a disease that affects hundreds of thousands of Americans. The country music star has multiple sclerosis. Like many others who were diagnosed during the dark days of the decade past, when the neurological disease was on few providers’ radar screens, Walker had his share of trouble acquiring a legitimate ...

American Beauty

Behavioral Health | Monday, 7 June 2010

Model Whitney Thompson Redefines a Healthy Body Image When Whitney Thompson is out for a walk—in one of the many cities where the supermodel travels—it is not unusual for a stranger to approach her and blurt out her name like they were old friends. And it is no less strange for the two of them, after moving past what could have been an off-putting introduction, to fall into conversation. Thompson is a 22-year-old internationally recognized star, but she has a familiar way with people. And while her modeling career has brought her early fame and a handlaid path to a successful living that few have the chance to realize, it is her ability to forge connections and kinship with the people she encounters that she finds most rewarding. “Girls will just walk up to me and talk to me,” she says. The ease with which she connects with people makes Thompson a powerful ambassador in one of the driving causes in her life—the fight against eating disorders and the shift in perceptions surrounding body image. Earlier this year, Thompson became an official spokesperson for the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), a nonprofit educational and advocacy organization that has been around since 2001. Unlike ...

Preventing Disability: The Science of St

Workers' Compensation | Wednesday, 1 September 2010

In today’s economy, many employers are doing more with less and struggling to stay competitive. That includes more actively managing their rising medical costs and focusing on the health and productivity of their workforce. At the same time, employees are worried about maintaining their benefits and the security of their jobs. Employees feeling vulnerable to job loss may conceal a medical condition from their employer if that condition makes it difficult to complete their job tasks. Inadvertently, such concealment can create a “perfect storm,” potentially exacerbating the employee’s medical condition and possibly leading to a work-related injury or a disability absence the employee was trying to avoid. Supporting Employer and Employee Needs While not all disabilities can be predicted or averted, employers who focus accommodation efforts solely on employees who are returning to work after a disability are missing a key opportunity to have a positive impact on reducing disability and maintaining a productive workforce. That opportunity is through a “stay-at-work” program. Stay-at-work programs can help employees avoid missed time and help employers retain productive members of their ...

Ask the Expert: Osteoarthritis and Co-Oc

Advice | Wednesday, 1 September 2010

In this edition of Ask the Expert, we consult with physician and managed care expert Dr. Maria Lopes, the Chief Medical Officer at AMCHealth in New York City. Dr Lopes works closely with Geisinger Health Systems on innovative strategies to improve care coordination and health. I am a case manager who oversees a relatively large proportion of older adults with knee osteoarthritis who also have multiple, chronic co-occurring diseases. While physicians advocate for increased physical activity, osteoarthritis and consequential pain often impede even moderate movement. What are some ways case managers like myself can prevent further morbidity and increased costs in this population? In complex cases such as these, it is important for case managers to adopt a holistic approach when evaluating the member’s medical history, particularly his or her chronic co-occurring diseases, and the types of medications he or she is taking that can affect overall health and progress. Also consider any educational gaps and psychosocial issues influencing outcomes. Another pertinent consideration is to gauge whether the member has any family or caregiver support and just how motivated and committed the member is to compliance with therapy goals and lifestyle modifications that are required or ...

Help Wanted: How Your Resume Can Drive Success
No matter what the position, a well-crafted resume can be a difference-maker in getting you in front of the right people. These helpful tips for draft
Credentialing Status: Verified
The Importance of Verification During the Credentialing Process Case management leaders across the continuum of care strive to provide the highest
Falls: The Balancing Art of Caring
“Walk like what?” Elaine asked. “Tell him to walk like a penguin!” I responded. “Tell him to keep his center of gravity
The Continuum of Hospice and Palliative Care
Each day thousands of people across the country receive beneficial care and support from hospice and palliative care providers in hospitals, senior li
Heart Failure Core Measures, Readmissions and Tran
Does this sound familiar? Mr. Garza has been admitted four times in the last six months for heart failure (HF) exacerbation. He struggles with medicat
Understanding Body Dysmorphic Disorder
In a world where looks and image are everything, imagine feeling too ugly to even step out the front door. So ugly that you want to take your life. Fo

Piecing the Patient Together
Holistic Strategies to Return a Patient to Work Motivating, educating and facilitating bomb-blast injured service members to return back to combat
Ask the Expert: Discharge Planning and Patient-Rep
Exploring best-practice discharge planning, Editor in Chief Anne Llewellyn sits down with Donna Fontaine, the Senior Account Executive of Health Manag
The Benefits of Advanced Education for Case Manage
Case management practice continues to be a hot topic as healthcare reform takes center stage over the next few years. As dynamic as it is, the healthc
Medicaid Program Achieves Top Quality Care
It’s not unusual for an overwhelmed parent to forget a child’s immunization appointment, for someone living with diabetes to skip an exam,
This Is an Emergency
Scoping the Challenges of Trauma Case Managers Hospital case management is a demanding field, where challenges spring up in a moment’
Allow Natural Death
Could These Three Words Change the Way We Provide End of Life Care? As most case managers on the frontline already know, hospitals have become envi

A Case Management Journey Through Liver Transplant
Case managers are an important key to help ensure successful outcomes for liver transplant patients. As advocates, case managers are able to help thes
Assessing Suicide Risk
The Role of Case Managers Bill called our call center at New Directions Behavioral Health Care stating that he had been sitting in his car thinking
Fibromyalgia: Fact or Fiction in Compensable Injur
And How to Bring These Difficult Cases to Closure If a physician were to tell you that you have a medical condition that requires treatment, as a h
Ask the Expert: Ethics, Utilization and Comparativ
Editor in Chief Anne Llewellyn sits down with Dr. Dennis Robbins, MPH, an ethicist whose work touches on quality, health law and health policy, to tal
The Pursuit of Seamless Imperfection
How accepting flaws produces better results Look closely at the finest silk, and you’ll find countless anomalies in the individual strands. E
Q and A: Electronic Medical Records and the Case M
Managing Editor Richard Scott sits down with Betty Pyle, RN, MS, FAACM, CMCN, CMC, the Director of Care Management at Oregon’s Salem Hospital, t

The Constant Rebalancing of Lee Woodruff
Confronting the Demands of Life in the Face of Traumatic Events The news shattered the quiet veneer of the morning. In a hotel room on the oneiric
Case Management and Medicare Updates
Moving Toward Better Outcomes and CM Return on Investment Continuous changes in regulations and reimbursement structures necessitated adjustments i
The Power of Outcomes
When Coordinating Care Isn’t Enough Coordinating care for patients continues to grow more and more complex. With health care reform officiall
Chasing Dreams
Some Therapies Help When Sleep Eludes Us Sleep deprivation is a common occurrence in our 24 hour, on-the-go society. One hundred years ago folks av
Chronic + Repetitive + Stress = Opportunity
Achieving Value-Based Physical Therapy If you help manage the health care of employees, there are three words you may have come to know that leave
Ask the Expert: Case Management and Social Network
To explore recent and potential changes to the practice, we consulted with Garry Carneal, JD, MA, the president and CEO of Schooner Healthcare Service

Enter My Heart
A grieving parent—and case manager—directs her energy to helping others My journey began in March 2004 when my son Marc was diagnosed w
Marcia Colone on Advancing Care, Escalation
Richard Scott In this inaugural edition of The CM Insider section of Case In Point Weekly—a section that will bring readers face to face with
Taking a Second Look
Two Patients with Spinal Cord Injury Undergo Continuing Care at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Visiting a friend one day in 1993, Charl
Home Care Guardians
The specialized services of Visiting Angels Today, more than 7.5 million Americans receive home care services. In light of demographic and political t
Novel Therapies Target Chronic and Acute Pain
Analyzing Electrotherapeutic Options for Managing and Controlling Pain Exploring viable alternatives to opiates, barbiturates and NSAIDs in managin
Standing Up to the Bully
Repudiating the abuse of a harmful, yet prevalent, act Bullying, a word that may conjure up the image of a belligerent provocateur kicking sand in

Maximum Engagement
Creating a Successful Return to Work When an employee is off work due to an illness or injury, the ideal goal from a vocational standpoint is
Ask the Expert: Quantifying Caseloads
We pose a series of questions to Kathy Craig, MS, RN, CCM, president of Craig Research Continuum, to learn about the growing set of tools surrounding
Using Training To Prevent Malpractice Litigation
As health care providers, most of us are all too familiar with the current health care environment. Staffing shortages and other functional problems o
A Fix on Frequent Flyers
How an ED Countered Overuse Three years ago Dr. Salvatore Vertaramo came up with an idea. As with most emergency departments, we had developed
Trials of Redemption
Kasey Edwards Combats the Loss of Limb It was well past midnight when Kasey Edwards dove into the canal. A native of the region surrounding Lake O
Young at Heart
Recognizing the Elderly Marks a Boon For Appropriate Care Though Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary describes an “elder” as a