Caseload Management Strategies
Individuals in rehabilitation face some problems and have needs that case managers should assess and address. Meeting such requirements entails using an individual’s strengths and interests to boost the attainability of needs and ensure comfortable and safe living conditions. It also involves providing a range of ideological interventions and monitoring progress toward reaching goals that clients have set. However, rehabilitation centers often have numerous cases that need assessment, creating a workload. Unless properly managed, such a backlog can result in clients’ problem growth and a probable increase in costs to remedy the problem in the long-run. Therefore, managing caseloads requires adequate organization, comprehension of job specification, efficient work allocation, prioritization of cases, proper coordination, and tracking techniques.
Organization is a major caseload management practice. Rehabilitation centers should ensure that a workload is reasonable, minimize risks to patients, and utilize available resources maximally. This objective can be met by organizing caseloads through the use of calendars, proper filing systems, and daily planning (McCory, 2019). Calendars ensure that practitioners allocate enough time for clients, attended to all of them, and familiarize with cases before sessions. Filing categorizes work orderly, easing the process of retrieving files when attending to patients. A work plan enables a case manager to view a full week’s activities and allows sufficient time to record goals and plans of action (Dillahunt, 2016). With appropriate organization, caseloads reduce, and the way a center utilizes resources becomes efficient. Furthermore, each client receives adequate time to relieve their problems and satisfy their needs. Besides organization, separating case management from therapy to manage caseloads is important.
Case management is a process that requires understanding a person’s problems and initializing methods to counter them. At times, cases may pile because managers believe that they should provide weekly sessions to resolve conflicts and concerns (Summers, 2016). However, despite the likelihood that some interpersonal problems affected clients’ past, such people are often not in need of therapy. Rather, with clear distinctions, a case manager establishes the role he or she plays and makes necessary references to people or agencies that can help the said individuals (Summers, 2016). Hence, identifying roles reduces intense pressure on caseloads and increases efficiency in management practices. Understanding job specifications enables one to allocate duties.
Work allocation entails the division of a workload around the work area. There is a need to plan, coordinate, and delegate duties involving visits to patients and other arising needs (Roberson, 2016). Instead of relying on oneself to complete all tasks, agencies should delegate responsibilities to avoid excessive unhandled cases. Work allocation should be done after the evaluation of nursing work through time, a team’s skillset, a client’s geographical location, and a patient’s individual needs (Roberson, 2016). Therefore, there is a concrete formula for matching clients with a suitable profile with the most appropriate staff. Since the duty to meet client desires is not dependent on a single individual, external or internal obstacles would not affect patient requirements and needs. Attendants maximize time and reduce caseloads, enabling case managers to satisfy their job specifications diligently. Once there is a clear allocation of duties, one can prioritize client cases easily.
Some patients exhibit a dire need for attention than others. Despite the responsibility of fulfilling all clients’ needs being the primal objective, setting priorities enables case managers to provide quality care when handling urgent cases. It assists them in identifying who is admitted to the caseload, how to manage their care requirements, and plan for their visits (McCrory, 2019). Priorities rank cases and evaluate them systematically to ensure that practitioners meet patient needs timely and accord such individuals quality services. Caseload analysis also ensures the equitable distribution of resources to the neediest (Harper-McDonald, 2020). With case evaluation based on urgency, the presence of unattended cases becomes improbable. Amidst creating priorities, is also vital to ensure proper coordination in the facility.
Managing caseloads requires coordination from both working personnel and the community. Workload may overwhelm some attendants, causing incompetency or inefficiency in meeting their job requirements. Proper coordination allows community members to work together with a center’s employees in identifying patient needs and devising ways of achieving them (McCory, 2019). Since the caseloads may be too intense to handle, the community may intervene by volunteering to offer certain guided measures that lessen tasks. Moreover, case managers would better identify which member of staff is best suited for a particular client, depending on competence and urgency of work. This concept could also be applicable through holding meetings, conferences, and seminars to equip both personnel and community members with adept ways of offering the required care (McCory, 2019). The merits of such a move is that it increases employee competency, which enhances their reliability and efficiency, and establishes a helpful society that would, in return, offer the required support to ensure the optimal satisfaction of client needs. At the eventual closure of appropriate coordination, tracking cases proves integral to managing caseloads.
Rehabilitation agencies and centers face the growing need to accommodate new clients and meet the needs of the current ones. In order to deliver optimum services, it is important to track the progress, cases, and needs of the patients (Summers, 2016, p. 1). Needs range diversely among people, and tracking individual cases prevents duplication of services. This perception helps identify dependency of registered patients and the type of special services they require (Mcdonald, Frazer, & Cowley, 2013, p. 141). It creates competence in a way that such clients do not lack the required services. Additionally, tracking resources could mitigate better management of caseloads (Summers, 2016, p. 1). Time and financial resources are of prime important in rehabilitation agencies. Some families require frequent visits, and monitoring the location, time, and resources used could ensure better allocation of funds and higher quality services. For instance, rather than having two dispatch teams visiting the same household, a case manager can redirect one team to another destination, while the other attends to all families within the area. Ultimately, a reliable tracking mechanism is among the best ways to manage caseloads.
Managing 50-200 cases can be overwhelming for case managers, but with sufficient organization, understanding job requirements, efficient work allocation, prioritization of cases, proper coordination, and tracking techniques, they can still deliver optimum services. Organization dictates proper dating and planning work to ensure all cases are reviewed on time. Understanding job requirements ensures to do what the profession dictates, and with the right allocation can reduce caseloads immensely. Basing cases on urgency prioritizes the direst clients, while still allocating time for the others. Proper coordination allocates qualified personnel for the call of the profession, and tracking progress of cases ensures resources are utilized for the right purpose. Rehabilitation agencies aim to boost the health of clients, and case managers should dedicate their time to providing the best services.
References
Dillahunt, C. (2016). Heavy caseload management and quality documentation [PowerPoint slides]. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi61IC0uNTqAhUJohQKHcDeCqQQFjAAegQIAxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fktdrr.org%2Ftraining%2Fwebcasts%2Fwebcast35-37%2F35%2Fwebcast_120616.pdf&usg=AOvVaw07KJVlVy96tL2rPFeb2wQ5
Harper-McDonald, B. (2020). District nurses’ experiences with a caseload profiling tool: A service community needs visible. British Journal of Community Nursing, 25(7), 318–326.
McCrory, V. (2019). Caseload management: A district nursing challenge. British Journal of Community Nursing, 24(4), 186–190. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjcn.2019.24.4.186
McDonald, A., Frazer, K., & Cowley, S. (2013). Caseload management: An approach to making community needs visible. British Journal of Community Nursing, 18(3), 140–147. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjcn.2013.18.3.140
Roberson, C. (2016). Caseload management methods for use within district nursing teams: A literature review. British Journal of Community Nursing, 21(5), 248–255. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjcn.2016.21.5.248
Summers, N. (2016). Fundamentals of case management practice: Skills for the human services (5th ed.). Cengage Learning.
