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Avoiding instances of missed care

Case Management Insider, September 22, 2015

In today’s busy hospitals, sometimes necessary jobs go undone. Whether it’s a patient leaving the hospital without needed education about diabetes management or a patient getting pressure ulcers because he or she was not turned often enough, missed care can present a big problem.

Case managers can play an important role in helping to prevent instances of missed care and minimizing the damage when lapses do occur, says Jackie Birmingham, RN, MS, vice president emerita, clinical leadership, for Curaspan in Newton, Massachusetts.

The first step is identifying these misses as they occur. Elderly patients aren’t the only ones at risk of problems related to missed nursing care. Karen Zander, RN, MS, CMAC, FAAN, is president and CEO of The Center for Case Management, says nurses should also be aware of the following problem areas:

• Missed medication or treatments
• Failure to change dressings
• Missed opportunities to turn the patient to avoid pressure ulcers
• Missed occupational or physical therapy

Once you identify potential lapses, you can fill in the gaps and use the information you gather to make changes to prevent missed care in the future.

To find out what strategies are most effective, check out the full story on this topic in the October issue of Case Management Monthly.

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