SDOH and Immigration Status: Offering Advocacy and Adhering to Ethical Practice Across the Care Continuum.

PURPOSE: Social determinants of health (SDOH), the environmental, economic, and social factors that influence people's health outcomes, are widely recognized across health and human services. In addition, there are other factors that can exacerbate SDOH; among them is immigration status. Its influence is so profound that it has been suggested that immigration be considered an SDOH in and of itself (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). Across the continuum, case managers need to be aware of the immigration status of their clients (the individuals for whom they advocate and provide services). This is particularly important when addressing the care needs and discharge plans for clients in acute care, community-based health, and workers' compensation. With workers' compensation, when an individual is undocumented and severely injured, immigration status directly impacts the services they may receive under state mandates. Moreover, such limitations can present ethical dilemmas for case managers, including what happens to workers if they are returned to their home countries. PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTINGS: SDOH and immigration status can impact individuals in acute care, subacute care, community-based care, and workers' compensation. IMPLICATIONS FOR CASE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: SDOH and immigration status highlight the disparities that exist within health and human services. Although equity is a core value of case management practice, the case manager's ability to provide equal access to care and resources can be severely limited because of the individual's immigration status. At all times, case managers must practice within their licensure and certifications. By recognizing that immigration status should be an SDOH, case management professionals and health and human services organizations can elevate the discussion of how to care for individuals with catastrophic injuries and illnesses who are undocumented.

Addressing Social Determinants of Health: A Care Coordination Approach for Professional Case Managers.

PURPOSE: Social determinants of health (SDOH) continue to gain attention as the factors that weigh heavily on physical and mental health. In response, professional case managers need to develop a deeper understanding of the entrenched nature of SDOH, particularly the spiraling and compounding effects of economic, environmental, and social factors on the health and well-being of individuals and populations. Professional case managers are essential to helping identify both the barriers experienced by individuals in accessing and receiving the care they need and the resources to eliminate or mitigate those barriers. These responsibilities should be most keenly felt by case managers who are board-certified and therefore held accountable by codes of ethics to ensure justice and fairness. By embedding greater awareness of SDOH into the case management process-from intake and assessment through implementation, evaluation, and across care transitions-case managers can establish rapport with clients (known as "patients" in some care settings) and support improved outcomes through best practices in care coordination, thus contributing to the Triple Aim of improving the health of people and populations and reducing the per capita cost of care. PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTINGS: SDOH impact individuals across the health and human services, including acute care, subacute care, primary care, community-based care, and workers' compensation. IMPLICATIONS FOR CASE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: Case management plays a vital role in providing people with episodic care and ensuring adequate follow-up. The latter includes if and how people are able to access the ongoing care they need, including medications (access and affordability), doctors' visits, therapies and other services, healthy nutrition, and more. However, a lack of affordability undermines an individual's ability to receive preventive care and treatment of chronic illnesses and potentially more serious and life-threatening conditions such as cancer. Compounding the impact of affordability can be a lack of transportation that inhibits access to health care professionals, which can affect individuals in both rural and inner-city environments. Although poverty and homelessness play a direct role in SDOH, case managers cannot assume which clients are impacted by these factors and which are not. Higher costs of living, loss of job or reduced income, unexpected expenses, and death of, or divorce from, a partner/spouse can negatively impact a client's ability to access and afford care. With this understanding, case managers can meet individuals where they are to explore how SDOH affects their lives, without judgment, bias, or assumption.

Improving Care Transitions to Drive Patient Outcomes: The Triple Aim Meets the Four Pillars.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to examine how case managers can support positive outcomes during care transitions by focusing on the goals of the Triple Aim () and Coleman's Four Pillars (). Case managers can play a pivotal role to ensure high-quality transitions by assessing patients and identifying those who are at high risk; coordinating care and services among providers and settings; reconciling medications; and facilitating education of patients and their support systems to improve self-management. These activities are congruent with an underlying value of case management as defined by the Code of Professional Conduct for Case Managers: "improving client [i.e., patient] health, wellness and autonomy through advocacy, communication, education, identification of service resources, and service facilitation" (). CASE MANAGEMENT PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTINGS: Case managers across health or human services must assess for, identify, and understand the vulnerability of patients during care transitions and must adopt best practices to support successful care transitions. This includes case managers in acute care, primary care, rehabilitation, home health, community-based, and other settings. IMPLICATIONS FOR CASE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: Two frameworks that support care transitions are the Triple Aim of improving the individual's experience of care, advancing the health of populations, and reducing the costs of care (), and Coleman's "Four Pillars" of care transition activities of medication management, patient-centered health records, follow-up visits with providers and specialists, and patient knowledge about red flags that indicate worsening conditions or drug reactions (). From a case management perspective, these approaches and their goals are interrelated. As an advocate for the individual and at the hub of the care team, the professional case manager engages in important activities such as facilitating communication across multiple providers and care settings, arranging "warm handoffs," undertaking medication reconciliation, and engaging in follow-up, particularly with high-risk patients. To support successful transitions of care, case managers must adopt best practices and advocate within their organizations for systematic approaches to care transitions to improve outcomes.

Case Managers on the Front Lines of Ethical Dilemmas: Advocacy, Autonomy, and Preventing Case Manager Burnout.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to examine how case managers are routinely confronted by ethical dilemmas within a fragmented health care system and given the reality of financial pressures that influence life-changing decisions. The Code of Professional Conduct for Case Managers (Code), published by the Commission for Case Manager Certification, acknowledges "case managers may often confront ethical dilemmas" (Code 1996, Rev. 2015). PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTINGS: The Code and expectations that professional case managers, particularly those who are board certified, will uphold ethical and legal practice apply to case managers in every practice setting across the full continuum of health care. IMPLEMENTATIONS FOR CASE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: This discussion acknowledges the ethical dilemmas that case managers routinely confront, which empowers them to seek support, guidance, and resources to support ethical practice. In addition, the article seeks to raise awareness of the effects of burnout and moral distress on case managers and others with whom they work closely on interdisciplinary teams.