Special Clinical Programs Case ManagementThrough the efforts of case management, patients quickly and efficiently receive the support and resources they need to facilitate their recovery process. At the Massachusetts General Hospital Heart Center, all of our case managers are registered nurses. As members of the patient’s multidisciplinary treatment team, the case manager communicates frequently with patients and their families, acts as a mediator between patients and providers, and handles all reimbursement issues.
The case manager, through a broad knowledge of clinical care and systems management, facilitates the patient’s care in the acute phase of an illness and ensures that the patient has whatever support services are needed both in the hospital and after discharge. As a result, patients receive the highest quality, most cost-effective care possible.
Patient Care PathwaysA patient care pathway serves as a road map for goals and what a patient can expect on the path to recovery. The pathway describes the usual progression, with the anticipated length of stay after surgery being four to five days. There are specific pathways for each of our cardiac surgery procedures. Specific goals and expectations are listed for each day. These include goals we expect a patient to reach, and tests, medications, treatments, diet and activities that patients can anticipate each day. Since our treatment is individualized and based on each patient’s needs, the day to day schedule may vary from patient to patient, and some care may differ from that specified on the path. Patient RelationsWe want the hospital experience to be as stress-free as possible and encourage our patients and families to ask us questions and to voice any concerns that may arise. There are numerous resources a patient can turn to for resolution, including the nurse manager, social worker, chaplain or the patient care advocate. For patients who speak a foreign language, language interpreters are available 24 hours-a-day. Most of our patients from outside the United States use the extensive services of the hospital's International Patient Center. Quality AssuranceMassachusetts General Hospital Heart Center is committed to continually improving our patients’ experiences and modifying our practice in any way to optimize our results. As an academic medical center, we carefully track what we do. Our surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists and pump technicians critically look at patient outcomes and evaluate the process. Although we continue to use cutting edge technology and are at the forefront of new treatments, we fully realize the importance of listening closely to our patients and their families in order to deliver our care with continued excellence. As part of our quality assurance measures, we welcome patient comments and suggestions and rigorously assess the results of our patient satisfaction questionnaires.
