Patient-centered focus improves case management outcomes.

Patient-centered focus improves case

management outcomes

Members set personal goals rather than

clinical milestones

When the case managers at

HealthPartners work with patients who are at risk for clinical

complications, they focus on helping their clients meet personal

goals, not those of the health care organization.

"It's important to be patient

centered and know what the patient's goal is. Then everything

else lines up with that," says Karen Kraemer,RN, CMC, senior director

of HealthPartners case management program. If the case managers

know a patient's personal goals, they can help them set

clinical goals and understand what they need to do to attain the

goal."

HealthPartners is an integrated nonprofit

health care organization based in Bloomington, MN, that provides

health services, insurance, and HMO coverage to more than 670,000

members.

Members are treated by the HealthPartners

medical group and clinic or by contracted medical groups or health

care systems.

When asked about their health care goals,

patients don't want to say they want to get their hemoglobin

A.sub.1C to a certain level, Kraemer reports.

Instead, they tell their case manager that

they want to be able to walk their daughter down the aisle in a few

months or travel to see the birth of their grandchild, …