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CMW Sneak Peak: A brief assessment tool can improve productivity and patient care

Case Management Weekly, July 23, 2008

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Until January 2007, the University of North Carolina (UNC) Health Care System in Chapel Hill was struggling with a case management assessment process that didn’t meet its needs. The majority of assessment data at the 728-bed academic tertiary care hospital was documented in handwritten progress notes that were time-consuming to create and cumbersome to navigate.

“We were doing assessments, of sorts, they just weren’t measurable or consistent or readily available to the rest of the healthcare team,” says Beverly Wagner, BSN, RN, CCM, clinical care management educator at UNC Health Care.

Wagner knew any assessment tool she created had to be easy and quick enough to use to ensure universal buy-in from all departments. So she focused on creating the brief assessment tool (BAT), an electronic form that guides staff through interviewing incoming patients and helps them easily document necessary information by simply clicking a mouse.

The paper BAT received excellent reviews from trainees for its:

• Question-and-answer format, which helps guide the interviews
• List of typical responses scripted to avoid repetitive documentation
• Consistency in topics covered and information documentation

“The staff is happy to use it. I expected for there to be some improvement, but not a 300% sustained increase in measurable assessments,” says Wagner. “To be able to have them like the process and feel like the tool works for them exceeded my wildest expectation.”

Check out the July 2008 issue of Case Management Monthly to get the full story, and check out all the benefits of being a Case Management Monthly subscriber!

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