This week is officially designated National Case Management Week by the Case Management Society of America, the American Case Management Association, and the Commission for Case Management Certification. So keep Calm and Call the Case Manager!

Case Management Week is when case managers celebrate their work in various settings across the broad healthcare system. Seeing all social media accolades about our work and essential role in the complex healthcare system is exciting.

I applaud my case management colleagues and encourage them to accept the comments and thank you’s you get this this week. You deserve every one of them! Our roles are challenging. We face tremendous pressure to help people whose lives have been turned upside down by an injury or an illness. It was not till I experienced my own healthcare challenge that I realized how hard it was to navigate the healthcare system. Having a case manager that I could call to help me when I needed it was life-saving. The experience changed my view and made me realize our essential role.

Today, we are at an inflection point in healthcare where technologies, like artificial intelligence and machine learning are coming into our world and changing how care is delivered. It is a disruptive time but an exciting time also.

Technologies that decrease the burden on healthcare professionals like case managers are welcome. Having data about our patients will allow us to know them better, know their needs, and help us find the resources to meet them.

No technology can replace the empathy, compassion, and critical thinking that each case manager brings to their work. I look forward to seeing technologies that will give us more time to sit with our patients to get to know and educate them as they transition through the broad healthcare system. Hence, they understand their medical conditions, become active participants in their care, and call me when a new challenge they can’t handle comes up.

I look forward to technologies that can alert me and my colleagues that a patient needs support or that the care needs to be modified. I look forward to technologies that can take away the busy work that prevents me from working at the top of my license and restricts me from being the best case manager I can be.

In honor of case management week, I am sharing a special report I compiled a few years ago titled 2^nd Acts. The report brings together case managers I have worked with and gotten to know over the years who shared their stories of how they got into case management and what they are doing in their 2^nd Act. Please take time to read it and share it with someone you feel would benefit from reading it! Here is the link to download the PDF https://anne-llewellyn.s3.amazonaws.com/2ND+ACTS+FINALVERSION.pdf+4.2.19.pdf

Thank each of you for what you do!

Have a great Case Management Week!