Today’s healthcare system is undergoing fundamental changes due to labor costs and shortages, outdated care delivery models, and changes in payment models. Hospitals are under tremendous pressure to reduce costs while delivering high-quality patient care. Efficient patient throughput is key to ensuring excellent patient care at an appropriate cost. Throughput is the patient’s movement through the care system and includes managing the proper length of stay, discharge to the appropriate level of care, readiness for discharge, avoidance of readmission, and positive patient outcomes.
Case Managers are the major drivers to ensure those care coordination elements of throughput are monitored and actioned. Unfortunately, the same nursing shortages that impact direct patient care are impacting the availability of case managers. Not enough case managers can mean not enough touch points and focus on driving patient care towards smooth, successful discharge.
Case managers ideally would be kept at a caseload of approximately 20 patients/day. With the current staffing shortages, many hospitals are seeing patient loads of 40-75 patients/day. This negatively impacts care and throughput for several reasons. High patient loads mean that case managers must work harder to prioritize patients because they cannot possibly care for all patients in one shift. This leaves patients who could be discharged ready lingering in the hospital because arrangements have not been made for discharge. High patient loads mean that case managers are often late starting the initial transition assessment, which will inform what resources will be needed for a successful discharge. This late assessment could increase the length of stay, put patients at risk for hospital-acquired infections/injuries, and increase the cost of care.
Improve throughput by implementing remote case management. Remote case managers can take on the burden of conducting the initial transition assessment AND determine whether a patient will have support needs requiring on-site case management assistance before discharge. This will ensure that all patients admitted will be assessed, and discharge planning can start sooner. Because of the ability to prioritize support needs, on-site case managers will be able to spend their time focused on the patients who have the most needs and will not need to address patients who have no support needs for discharge planning. Remote case management programs reduce costs by reducing the length of stay, readmission rates, and hospital-acquired infections/injuries due to extended hospital stays. Remote case management can help to improve patient and staff satisfaction through extra patient and family touch points and early discharge planning. On-site case managers will be able to work to the peak of their practice and feel relief from the burden of having to care for every patient.
Shearwater Health is revolutionizing Clinical Process Outsourcing by partnering with clients to create strategic solutions that tackle clinically complex issues that alleviate staffing burdens, drive positive patient outcomes, and reduce labor costs. Our clinical expertise includes a dedication to quality, flexible modes of support, both live and virtual, the ability to follow complex clinical workflows, and meet industry standards for security and compliance.
With 3,000+ experienced clinicians and over 20 years of experience in healthcare, Shearwater Health provides dedicated clinical teams delivering improved quality of care, reduced cost, and enhanced clinical processes.
