case management

Case Management

There is hard evidence that providing a case managed service for people with End of Life Care needs greatly improves the quality of life of the individual in need of care and provides significant benefits to their carers.

the key aim is to enable more people to be cared for and supported to die in the place of their choice, by delivering the right care, by the right people at the right time.

Too many people are dying in hospital when this can be avoided and that in too many instances their preferred choice of place of care and death is not being met.

A recent study conducted by Medicas on behalf of a national hospice highlighted many strong examples of the provision of high quality End of Life Care and of individuals achieving their preferred priorities for care (PPC). However, alongside this, there is also evidence that
• services are not consistently operating at their optimum level of expertise or capacity
• insufficient take-up in the use of End of Life Care tools is inhibiting the planning and delivery of appropriate care (although where they are used, high rates of compliance is achieved), and
• services can be disjointed and lack the necessary co-ordination or resources to sustain the care required to achieve a person’s PPC.

A case managed service was proposed to enable significantly more people to achieve their PPC and substantially reduce the number of avoidable admissions to, and deaths, in hospital. It set out the key aspects of service redesign, requirement for new investment and the process of change from a whole systems perspective to address the deficiencies highlighted above and deliver individualised, co-ordinated and proactively case managed End of Life Care services across hospital, hospice and community-based services, within the NHS, local authority, independent, charitable and voluntary sectors, in line with the PCT’s Strategy.

Medicas is now providing consultancy to a leading hospice in Essex in collaboration with the Acute and Community services and the local PCT to roll out this Case Managed Pilot into the locality. This is an exciting project which will make a significant difference to the quality of life of individuals facing a life threatening illness.

For more information on this innovative initiative contact Medicas at the email address