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Brian Cento represents Greystone Health Network as the Regional Director of Case Management for Greater Miami. Cento said that at the start of his career, working under the leadership of Kimberly Pero, Regional Director of Operations for the Greater Miami area, he quickly began to understand the significant role that case management plays in the post-acute arena. He said the future of healthcare has shifted its focus on quality of care and improved outcomes, aligning providers to work closely together across all specialties and settings. Case management’s role is to "manage the patient’s care from the point of admissions into the building, back to discharging them into the community."
Naturally each situation is different, and Cento agreed that "you’re never going to have two cases that are the same." For that reason, being able to pull all of that together requires myriad components working in collaboration.
Cento explained that part of his work involves making sure that the health plans know the current status of the patients from a clinical standpoint, how well they’re doing, if they’re in therapy, if they’re improving. "Also working with the team to make sure that the patient is receiving proper care from both the therapy side and the nursing side, and confirming what the discharge plan is going to be – that the patient has someplace safe to go home to."
Improved communications and streamlined patient care helps to shorten the length of stays in acute and post-acute care, as well as care provided in the home, which is important to help prevent patients from returning to the hospital.
"I think case management ties everything together, so that nothing is missed. Overall, the goal is to increase patient satisfaction and create a safe environment for them and their families upon return to the community. The primary focus at Greystone is to provide an exceptional customer experience using innovative and compassionate care focused around the patients and their needs."
The case management system at Greystone Health Network is doing just that.
