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Franklin Health, Inc., of Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, describes its mission as caring for the "sickest 1 percent" of society. The organization relies on nurse care managers to work directly with patients and families, health care providers, and insurers to develop treatment plans, coordinate care, and facilitate information flow. Franklin uses a Web-based information system, Patient Management System '98, to track patient care and quickly update medical records during late-stage disease management.
Case managers enter information when patients are admitted to the Franklin Health System and then use the system to track patient goals, patient and family issues or concerns, treatment plans and actions, and outcomes.
The system aims to promote information sharing between the patient and treating physician - and to improve communication among the field case manager, the health plan, and the nurse and physician case supervisors. Team managers can access patient data at any time. To safeguard patient privacy, only employees with the appropriate Web browser and passcode have access to patient information, and only for patients who are in their care. Approximately 60 care managers use the software to track visits to patient homes, as well as hospital and nursing home stays.
Eventually, Franklin will make the system available on-line at a secured site that other organizations could access to track patient care. Such Web-based computing would permit widely dispersed organizations to enter data for their own tracking purposes. In a sense, such a system would be like a grocery store card, which marketers use to follow individual purchases to tailor marketing and which managers use to change orders and track inventory. Using aggregate data, managers and caregivers can assess the entire care system to identify areas needing improvement and can monitor progress as changes to the system are made.
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This online version of the book Improving Care for the End of Life: A Sourcebook for Health Care Managers and Clinicians is provided with permission of Americans for Better Care of the Dying [ www.abcd-caring.org ] and Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For further information on quality improvement in end-of-life care visit The Palliative Care Policy Center [ www.medicaring.org ]. |
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