Cheryl's Blogspot

My blog is late in the week, for we all attended the Arkansas Workers Comp Commission Educational Conference this week.  As always, it was full of great presenters and information which I will be excited to share with you.  I cannot tell you how much we all look forward to this conference where we can visit with all our customers and long time friends in the WC arena.  We also love to have a little fun with competition while we're there.  This year we had a general attendee drawing for a lovely lantern, which went to Laura Hopper with AIG,  In addition, we had a very special VIP drawing for a VISA gift card that went to...well, watch and see! A heart felt thank you to everyone that stopped by our booth and especially our VIP drawing participants!

This time of year everyone is talking about football, and around here, our Arkansas Razorbacks.  My thoughts of football tend to revolve around the latest talk of permanent brain damage resulting from the game...but I digress;  The topic of this blog is really about having a game plan.  In Case Management, we work as a team with the injured worker, carrier, employer, and physician to get the injured worker rehabilitated and back to work.  That's the ultimate goal.  Sometimes it's an easy win, and other times it feels like reaching Super Bowl level.  Let me walk you through some of the play books we have going on. One of our senior CM team is currently working a catastrophic injury and I saw in an email today she has set forth her CM plan to the carrier for requesting a hand surgeon specialist.  The injured worker is likely still weeks away from restoring function to his hands, but early consultation and planning are essential to keeping the recovery process moving forward

Today's post is from guest blogger, Jackie Cooper, RN, BSN. One of JMS Consulting's finest, Jackie is our NorthWest Arkansas Case Manager. Always keeping her eye out for the latest in treatment options, Jackie recently had lunch with two new providers in Fayetteville to learn more about their practice and new procedures they offer to patients.

The motto of the Case Manager is:  Plan for everything, but expect the unexpected!  An idiom from the famous novel  Of Mice and Men  says it best, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."  As healthcare and Case Management becomes more evidence based, it becomes easier to guide WC providers to evaluate progress and base orders on objective findings.  Use of references such as the Official Disability Guides ensure evidence based practice.  So what can go wrong?   A few years ago we began working with a local provider who sought out WC business.  He let Case Managers help him learn to base orders on objective findings.  He'd done well and seemed to developed a predictable formula that effectively addressed related symptoms and never prolonged the treatment plan unnecessarily.  Many CM's began to flock to him. Then a JMS Case Manager brought him a patient that voiced a desire to get disability; on the first visit.  He treated her according to

A referral came in yesterday prefaced by the label, "This is one of our frequent flyers!"  If you deal with workers compensation, you know what that means - an employee that has filed several work injury claims that many times are associated with bizarre, or routine circumstances that make us question validity versus some underlying motive.   As Case Managers, when we receive one of these referrals, there are 3 strategies that we will employ in our treatment plan.  The first and most important strategy is Choice of Physician .  In Arkansas, the employer has the right to first choice of physician.  We highly recommend employers take advantage of that and choose the best specialty fit for each injury on a case-by case basis.  In these situations, the physician should also be one that we know is willing to review all information presented - from the injured worker, from the employer, and any medical information from the case manager.   The second strategy is again, on