sinai in the news
Beth Forte and Case Management at Sinai Health System’s Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 2008
The Case Management Department at Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital of Sinai Health System includes five inpatient case managers, one outpatient case manager and three assistant case managers. Patients served might range in age from infants to seniors in their 90s and diagnoses can entail stroke, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, amputations, catastrophic injuries such as gun shot wounds and motor vehicle accidents. Additional diagnoses served are transplants, cancer, and illnesses such as MS and Parkinson’s. Patients generally reside south or west of the hospital in the greater Chicago area. Case managers are assigned to Schwab units wherein each nursing unit has a designated main diagnosis such brain injury, stroke, or spinal cord. The assigned unit case manager works as part of the team of therapists, physicians, nurses, and other caregivers.
Beth Forte has worked at Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital since 1990 and over the time she has been a case manager she has definitely seen a trend. It has become increasingly difficult to get some patients the care they need after discharge – particularly outpatient or home therapy. For outpatient therapy one key issue has been transportation since Schwab’s broad catchment area is no longer serviced by van providers. The range of pick up possibilities has contracted – an untenable situation for patients who are dependent upon that transportation mode.
When the most workable option is therapy provided in the home, there often are issues too. Many of the third party providers that cover inpatient rehabilitation do not cover home care. Another issue is that is the most often ordered therapies for Schwab patients are speech and physical therapy. Not all home care providers offer both, or sometimes even one.
On a positive note, recent offerings of generic prescriptions for fixed prices such as $4 have been helpful for Medicare and public aid –pending patients.
For the future, Beth believes that case workers will have to be more and more resourceful in finding ways to meet patients’ needs. Her personal concern is about what insurance providers are not going to do. She sees the economic future and how to access medical care for her patients as both a central and worrisome challenge for the future.
