CMSA is looking for the best individuals to join our Board of Directors to ensure we continue to be the leading membership association providing professional collaboration across the health care continuum. CMSA’s Board of Directors consists of individuals who possess extensive experience with diverse perspectives. Each year, members are sought from all disciplines and perspectives, those who have the expertise and desire to serve and represent CMSA as a whole. CMSA is looking for individuals who: • Are recognized leaders • Have demonstrated expertise and experience • Are willing to serve, if elected, and willing to commit the necessary time, energy, and effort to participating in CMSA activities Click below to learn more about open positions and submit your nomination by October 31, 2017.

 

Are you ready for 2018? So are we! In addition to our new conference website, we have confirmed all three keynotes for our Chicago event: Dr. Travis Stork, Dr. Allen Hamilton and Dr. Rick Rigsby. And don't forget: each paid registrant receives a FREE one year individual membership with CMSA! Follow the link below to learn more and register. We can't wait to see you there!

 

As another National Case Management Week has come to a close, we want to thank our members and larger case management community for a celebratory week. We hope our community of case managers feels recognized, appreciated and celebrated for your dedication and hard work. Please continue to share your case management journey with your community at CMSA, just as so many of you have have over the past few weeks. Our CMSA and National Case Management Week pages on Facebook, as well as our Client Services team, are great resources keep connected and engaged!

 

Download CMSA's Standards of Practice for Case Management, 2016 revision, which provides practice guidelines for the case management industry and its diverse stakeholders.The impetus for the 2016 revision of the Standards is the need to emphasize the professional nature of the practice and role of the case manager.

The 2016 Standards contain information about case management including an updated definition, practice settings, roles and responsibilities, case management process, philosophy and guiding principles, as well as the standards and how they are demonstrated.

Download Your Copy

 

Professional Case Management is a peer-reviewed, contemporary journal that crosses all case management settings. The Journal features best practices, industry benchmarks and hands-on information for both the professional case manager and those newer to the specialty. Additionally, PCM provides continuing education opportunities and cutting-edge research, as reflected in the tagline, Leading Evidence Based Practice Across Transitions of Care.

Professional Case Management Print Upgrade

All members receive complimentary online access to Professional Case Management, the official journal of CMSA, as a benefit of membership. A print subscription to Professional Case Management is now available to all members for an additional $35.00 fee (per year). To add the print version to your subscription, please call Lippincott Williams & Wilkins' Member Services at 1-866-489-0443 and reference promotion code MGK296ZZ. Learn More

Discounted CEs from Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins

As part of your CMSA member benefits, you have access to discounted continuing education opportunities through our journal publishing partner, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Content is based on peer-reviewed Lippincott journals, trusted by nurses globally to provide current, evidence-based and authoritative content critical to everyday practice. All CE activities in Professional Case Management are discounted 25 percent.

This includes CCMC, ANCC, NAHQ, and NASW contact hours. To access activities, take these steps:
1. Go to http://nursing.ceconnection.com/default. Log in using your NursingCenter.com user ID and password.
2. Visit http://nursing.ceconnection.com/browse/sources/28 and enter the offer code "CMSA" into the coupon field upon check out.
3. Complete check out and enjoy.

 

 

Earlier this year, we announced a partnership with CCMC to continue advancing professional case managers in their career paths. Under the agreement, CMSA members receive a 20 percent discount when applying for the CCM, as well as upon renewal. Those who hold the CCM certification receive a 20 percent discount for CMSA membership.

If you have questions about how to take advantage of your new member benefit, please contact CMSA Client Services at cmsa@cmsa.org or 501-225-2229.

 

Pat Stricker, RN, M Ed SVP, Clinical Services TCS Healthcare Technologies I hope you all had a wonderful Case Management week. You deserve it!! As I was writing last month’s article, I started to reflect on how lucky I was to choose nursing as a career. When I was in high school, teaching and nursing were two of the most popular careers for women and I was going to be a teacher. Then one day a good friend asked me to go with her to a meeting of our high school’s Future Nurses Club. I joined the club with her and the two of us decided to become nurses instead of teachers. I have thanked her ever since (except during the summers when I wished I had chosen to be a teacher so I would have had the summer off). We did both go on to obtain a Master’s in Education degree (our second love). In the late 1960s, career opportunities open to women were quite limited. Married women had only recently entered the workforce and were typically working in roles that did not require a college degree, e.g., sales clerk, typist, bank clerk, telephone operator, waitress, etc. Only 1 of 5 women with children under the age of 6 and 1 of 4 women with children over the age of 16 held jobs. In 1967, the workforce was comprised of only 14.8 percent women versus 43.2 percent today, and they were only paid 60 percent of the male rate versus 77 percent today. In 1970, one-half of working women 30-34 years of age worked as teachers.

 

by Danielle Pierotti, RN, PhD, CENP Care transitions, the movement of a patient between care settings, is one of the most discussed phrases in healthcare today. At one time, discharge planning was the focus of hospital efforts. "Discharge planning starts at admission" was the key phrase for many years. Over time, daily practice and research delved into the point of discharge and exposed the commonalities and risk of every point of transition in the healthcare continuum. The conversation evolved from one limited to preparing for a hospital discharge into an expansive conversation about safety, readmissions, communication and technology. Care transitions are discussed for patient movement between any two places of care and have spurred an industry. A simple Google search for the phrase returned more than a million results. There are organizations, templates, standards, consultants, articles, coalitions, software, self-learning tools, conferences, models, measures, best practices and checklists of all varieties. The conversation is so expansive, it is hard to know where to start, never mind how to pick what is most applicable to the transition in question. Numerous supportive tools guide clinicians of all varieties to use standard communication methods and mechanisms, identify key points of risk and useful follow up to catch problems early. In all this effort, attention and research, one thing seems to have been overlooked: the most basic aspects of "How do I take care of my loved one?"

 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma on October 17 released additional details on the agency’s efforts in support of dialysis patients and providers in Puerto Rico. Care for these fragile patients is a top priority as are the agency’s actions to help all of those impacted by the storm. During the past few weeks, CMS has worked to ensure hospitals and other facilities can continue operations by waiving numerous Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) requirements, and has helped individuals and doctors by creating special enrollment opportunities to access healthcare immediately and a hotline for physicians assisting with Hurricane Maria response efforts. "All of the work we’ve done at the direction of President Trump to help in Puerto Rico has been vital and life-saving for so many residents," said Administrator Verma. "The dialysis patients and facilities have been a particularly special focus of our staff and partners because of the unique and special needs that their care requires. I’ve been so impressed by the determination of the first responders to ensure every possible step is taken so that these patients have access to the life-saving care they need." Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

 

CMSA Today™—the official magazine of the Case Management Society of America—is the magazine for case managers. We are committed to providing case management knowledge, perspectives and news to case managers in all sectors of the profession. To facilitate that mission, we accept and consider:

• Original articles written by case managers of all healthcare backgrounds;
• Expertly prepared articles from professional writers—whether medical writers or experienced generalists—on case management topics;
  
• Feature articles, column material, and news about case management trends and issues, as well as about CMSA chapters and their activities;
  
• and personal, member-generated items considered nontraditional for a professional-association publication as poems, remembrances and similar sorts of content.
  

Consider sharing your knowledge by writing and submitting an article! Click below to learn more.
Learn More  

 

Free Panel Discussions and Companion Videos Offering 1.5 Credit Hours This six-part video activity is designed to support healthcare professionals in applying key findings from the PROSPER studies to improve outcomes for patients with AF and stroke risk. This dynamic video activity is designed to support health care professionals, patients and caregivers, and other stakeholders in applying key findings from the PROSPER studies to improve outcomes for patients with AF and stroke risk. The expert panel features a lead researcher and a patient-investigator on the PROSPER team; clinicians who represent the interests of peers in primary care, cardiology, and pharmacy; and a nurse case manager, who addresses key issues in care coordination for ischemic stroke prevention and recovery. Five short companion videos feature focused discussions on specific applications of the unprecedented insights into anticoagulant medication use and patient-centered perspectives revealed through the PROSPER studies. Accreditation: Offering 1.50 hours of accreditation for Physicians & Physician Assistants (ACCME), Nurse Practitioners (AANP), Pharmacists (ACPE), Nurses (ANCC), and Case Managers (CCMC). Expert Panelists: Emily O’Brien, PhD; PROSPER Study Co-Investigator Lesley Maish, PROSPER Study Patient Investigator Tiffany Sizemore-Ruiz, DO, FACC; Cardiologist C Michael White, PharmD, FCP, FCCP; Pharmacist Mindy Owen, RN, CRRN, CCM; Nurse Case Manager