Might be a silly question, but I'll ask anyway...

toinette1953 · Feb 12, 2009

Not a silly question at all,this is sort of synonymous, and someone that has more insight into this, can chime in. There are Case Managers in home health that coordinate the care and drive the care for that particular patient and some just commonly say, "She or he is a home health nurse." But the case manager has a greater responsibility to that patient and to all of those on her caseload than the per diem or per visit nurse, that goes in spends 30 minutes, takes some vital signs, calls the home health office if there are problems, administers an IV, injection, perform wound care, and moves on to the next pt, turns their paper work in and drives on (Now remember, I am only going by what the job description is for that home health agency)

In fact, this may be some nurse's second job, she just wants a few visits a week to supplement her pay. They feel they are carefree and without responsibility.

But, remember, regardless of the title and the fact that you may not wear the ROLE of Case Manager at that agency, you still; based on the license- LVN/RN, you have the SAME responsibility of that dedicated case manager, you are expected to act accordingly and that would include deliver prudent nursing care within the scope of your license.

I know I did not answer that maybe the may you wanted to hear it, but yes sometimes a Case Manager, is called simply a home health nurse.

Someone else chime in and offer more input!:icon_roll:redpinkhe

nursemonika · Feb 12, 2009

I agree with toinette's reply....I was a Hospice Nurse Case Manager for 14 years (CHPN), and that is exactly what my title was on my ID: "Certified Hospice RN Case Manager". That was because I had a specific caseload, and they were my patients, and I was responsible for their care, any Referrals, reporting at Team Meetings, etc. The RNs who were on the On-Call Team (when we had one) were not Case Managers...they made prn and w/e visits to everyone's patients (and left a VM report on the primary nurse CM's beeper at the end of their shift). The Case Manager also had the option of going out to pronounce, should her/his patient die when she was not on duty. Currently, I am a Certified Case Manager (CCM), which means different things to different people, and you can function in many different environments (HH agency, Insurance companies, LTCF's, hospitals, etc).

I hope this helped.:icon_roll

MsEnfermera · Mar 4, 2009

Sorry but I had to laugh at the way you asked your question.:chuckle I'm an LVN and have done home visits for 13 years so you gave me a good chuckle. I think the two previous answers work great. As the LVN who did intermittents I always had an RN who opened the case and was called the case manager unless she was a per diem and just opened and passed it on to a fulltime nurse. In my case the RN that opened was considered the manager and we all worked together on a team and covered each others patients as needed but the "main" nurse was the case manager.