Liability And Case Management: A Case Study

Many legal challenges exist for case managers but documentation is big liability issue. We have to think because a case manager works in diverse roles were there are potential legal and ethical challenges that exist around every corner. Reading the article regarding liability and case management one of things the article mention is deciding on care for patients when it comes to cost saving without regard to the treatment regimen.” It is important that a case manager not make decision based on the economic status of client but do comparison shopping for the right care for the client. Other areas of liabilities is the lack of following up with all the health care providers who are involve in managing different parts of the patient care. Example

As the role of case management becomes apparent so are legal and liability claims. It makes no matter what practice setting a case manager is in they can be held for damages if their actions fall below the normal accepted standards of care and if the patient has a bad outcome. The case manager needs to be aware of the standards of care and document all intervention done. When preparing to case management a client gather information that appropriated health care history from admission to discharge. So, that appropriate plan of care can developed among the health care team to ensure positive outcome for this episode of care. For example, if this health crisis is related to mental health disorder that resulted in physical health emergency then case manager would need to talk and include the mental health provider and medical doctor as part of the health care planning team. The case manager would need to know all past mental health breaks or if this new mental health issue for the client. This may sound trivial but many times not all providers are included in planning process for patient, when all participates not included can lead to adverse outcome. This could result in malpractice or lack of care standards on the part of the case manager. The case manager needs to talk to the physicians to ensure they are clearly communicating their patients' condition and that they are on board with the plan care all way to the discharge plan. (Hogue & Prudhomme, 2012) Another point is documentation on a patient. There is a saying in the medical field if you didn’t document it didn’t happen, make sure as a case manager, everything you do is fully documented in the patient record. Develop habits that are good, you always want to document on a client when everything is fresh. It proves to the case manager’s credibility.