Communicating Your Value: The Case Manager’s Guide
By Dr. Colleen Morley, President of CMSA, and Bonnie Geld, MSW, President and CEO of CFCM
For too long the case management profession has been referred to as healthcare’s best kept secret. No more.
The Case Management Society of America (CMSA) and The Center for Case Management (CFCM) have worked together to present their collaborative Position Paper Communicating Your Value: The Case Manager’s Guide. This first-of-its-kind paper highlights invaluable information on wide-ranging case management roles and features insight from some of the best and brightest case managers in the field. CMSA and CFCM look forward to raising awareness about the undeniable impact case managers have on the healthcare continuum.
With yesterday’s official launch, we sat down to discuss this special collaboration.
On how this collaboration came to be…
Colleen: I have long been a fan of CFCM and Karen Zander and had the opportunity to meet Bonnie at a conference. When I was looking for entities to collaborate with, CFCM was top of my list! In my usual overly exuberant way, I am so incredibly excited about this project, from working with CFCM to the subject matter experts who volunteered their time, talents and perspectives in their contributions to the opportunity to publish something that I have been longing to see; why is case management important, in case management’s own words!
Bonnie: Other than a mutual admiration for CMSA/CFCM, Colleen and I had the opportunity to connect and discuss our common goals for Case Management and Social Work Practice. We found that our organizations align towards improving the visibility of the value of this discipline. Writing this paper was a wonderful experience and an honor. We had the opportunity to learn from so many professionals in the field. The value is clear!
On why it is important to discuss case management’s value and why it was important that the Communicating Your Value: The Case Manager’s Guide Position Paper be shared now…
Colleen: Because we are the best kept secret in all of healthcare and we are on a mission to break that perception. It’s time case management took its place in the light and that the entire healthcare community, including the patient/caregiver, understood the value a professional case manager brings to their journey.
Bonnie: October is Case Management month. This paper offers another opportunity to highlight the importance and value of these professions. Hospitals and Health Systems don’t always have a clear understanding of the case management practice; nor do they leverage the skill sets of these clinicians so that true care coordination and patient progress can be achieved. We believe our paper highlights the value case managers bring to the organization and to the patients and communities they serve.
On what they hope to accomplish…
Colleen: We hope to start conversations about where case managers “should be” in the healthcare continuum (answer: everywhere) and how they are, not just integral but invaluable members of the healthcare team, regardless of practice setting. We also want to inform patient/caregivers about who we are, what we do and how they benefit from us (and the services we provide).
Bonnie: Value begins with visibility. We believe that this position paper offers more visibility to demonstrate our worth and reminds the health care ecosystem that we are an essential piece of the care continuum.
Download your FREE copy of Communicating Your Value: The Case Manager’s Guide here.