Case Management: A Palliative Perspective

By Rhoda Neader RN, CHPN, CCM

End of life care has made vast improvements. However, statistics show that aggressive high cost care for patients continues to be widespread. Costs in end stage medicine continue to be extensive and sometimes physically, emotionally or financially exhausting for patients and their families. We find that this doesn't always necessarily offer the patient quality of life care or address the patient's actual wishes until too late. We continue to see very Ill patients in and out of the hospital or rehab units for their final weeks to months of life. We continue to struggle to identify the patient's wishes and goals until they are hospitalized or in crisis despite many advances in establishing advanced directives. In the old saying "We know more about our refrigerators than about our health insurance," many individuals do not understand their insurance and may feel quite overwhelmed by this complicated process. Rhoda Neader's book "Case Management: A Palliative Perspective" includes basic insurance resources for anyone interested in learning more. It is a must read tool for case managers, nurses or anyone wishing to know more about the insurance maze. It offers a well more comprehensive approach for anyone in their patients or their family’s end of life experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Release date: Dec 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9781977207616

Rhoda Neader RN, CHPN, CCM

Rhoda Neader is an awarding-winning case manager who has an extensive background. Rhoda was a member of The Hospice and Palliative Care Council of Vermont, The National Hospice and Palliative Care Society, Northern Vermont Oncology Nurses Society, ExCel (Excellence in End of Life Care), a steering committee of Vermont Program for Quality in Health Care (VPQHC), Case Management Society of America (CMSA), The Green Mountain Chapter of CMSA, and Arizona Chapter of CMSA. She was president of the CMSA Green Mountain Chapter in 2006. She has been certified in hospice and palliative care since 1997 and board certified in case management since 2001. She served on the National BCBS Federal Association as a consultant. She was awarded Excellence in Case Management. She was honored to be named the 2004 Case Manager of the Year by the CMSA, Green Mountain Chapter. Rhoda lives in Arizona with her husband, John.

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Case Management

A Palliative Perspective

All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2019 Rhoda Neader RN, CHPN, CCM

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The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-9772-0761-6

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Table of Contents

1. Case Management and the Evolution That Leads Many Nurses to It

2. Palliative Care and its Role in Case Management

3. Clarifying the Patient’s Goal

4. Benefits and How to Make the Most of What You Have to Work with While Maximizing Options for Your Patient and Family

5. End-Stage Disease and the Complexity it Presents

6. Self Care

7. Patient Follow-Up and Companioning

8. A Spiritual Journey

9. Conclusion

Introduction

The contents of this book represent a minute slice of my years in nursing, hospice and palliative care as well as with case management. The situations are real. However there is no information to reveal the patient, demographics, or any situation that might compromise an individual patient’s confidentiality.

At an ethics seminar that I attended, the general discussion after was one of significant lack of knowledge in the role of the case manager, palliative care and clinical ethics. There have been many individuals in my life that have an extensive knowledge base, and I am by no means an expert on any or one subject. I felt it might be useful to share my clinical practice role, what I feel could play an expanded role in many areas of case management, and truly more holistically support the patient populations that we serve.

I would like to acknowledge:

My husband John who supports me in many ways

Our children, who are finding their own paths in life.

Diana Peirce, hospice director, mentor and friend who led us all by example

My colleagues, friends and family

Case Management and the Evolution That Leads Many Nurses to It

Chapter 1

I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be truly really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.

ALBERT SCHWITZER

The role of the case manager has taken many shapes and forms over the past few years. Workers comp case managers, home health and hospice case managers and insurance case managers are evolving and growing. It is no wonder why patients find case managers so beneficial with the ever changing health care situation and the complex maze that they have to maneuver.

My beginning story is like so many of ours. I started as a hospital floor nurse. I remember we would always stand for the physician to give him or her our chair. The patient usually never questioned the treatment plan that was offered. Stem cell replacements were unheard of. Bone marrow transplants were a huge undertaking. Heart and kidney transplants were not done yet. TPN (Total Parental Nutrition) was new in the hospitals. Nurses wore expensive, easily soiled white uniforms, white and easily torn stockings, and white shoes that we were expected to keep very clean. We had those little white caps and pins. Each patient was given a sponge bath along with a back rub every night. They were given a complete bath with a linen change every morning, and if the patient was unable to feed himself, we would sit and feed him. Medications were poured from a little med room. Nurses used to smoke in the little room and give a verbal report for shift change. Nursing unions were unheard of. I started working as a graduate nurse for $3.91/ hour. Yes, really.

Later, I was a director of nursing in a little nursing home in rural Vermont. I then went to a rural community home health agency (VNA), where I met the most fabulous hospice director, Diana Pierce. I fell in love with hospice (there was no palliative care back then) and it has been my love and passion for the years following. There was no Medicare hospice benefit back then. Many small home hospices in the state were pretty shaky. There was only six of us on the original hospice team and we often covered a hundred or more miles daily, walked into many snow filled drives, carried supplies and necessary things, including a loaf of bread, on the way. The hospice team was very tight knit, loving and supportive. When our dog, Smokey died (a dog I was asked to take after his owner died in hospice), we had a little candle light ceremony with a ship going out to sea, with my children and the hospice team.

I got many of my cooking recipes from my hospice families. They would have me taste this or that, then they would hurry off to copy it. Some families had no central heat. Some had no running water. Some were very poor. I found that they were very loving and very devoted to each other and to their hospice nurses. They were glorious days. Many of the same dear people are still on the team, still driving, still working the long days into the nights, and supporting the patients and each other.

We would often meet our unfortunate hospice patients as they were nearing death. It was not uncommon to meet a patient who was experiencing a fecal impaction, on opioids and not on a bowel program. We would make the best of it. It was the beginnings that made the wonderful unforgettable bonds and memories that still brings a smile to my face. We would sometimes just be together with a dying family member, talking, singing, or just sitting in quiet.

Sometime, early on, our Diana got Medicare certification for our hospice. We got paid, and it was a really big