1. Improving outcomes
Foremost in any case manager's job description is improving patient outcomes, and hospitals and health systems are leaning on them heavily for this indispensable task, particularly given CMS' focus on reducing read missions. The University of Connecticut's John Dempsey Hospital, in Farmington, for example, has case managers schedule appointments for patients in the hospital’s heart failure clinic. This initiative has helped the hospital to reduce its 30-day heart failure read missions, according to a November 2012 article in Hospital Case Management.