DCAM Concept 1

DCAM Concept 1 - Defining a Case

If you ask just about any care management professional on the planet to tell you the size of their current "case load", they will count up the number of clients or patients they are currently treating and respond with a number for you. While this may be a valid way of defining case load for case management purposes it has led to a never ending list of problems in database design for case management systems.

If, for reporting purposes, you need to count the number of new clients you see in a year you will have to enter them all in some form of database. Usually you would assign them a file or case number and a date they became new clients. You would likely collect some additional demographic data and perhaps their address and phone number. At the end of the year you can run your reports and "count" the number of clients and report on the breakdown of demographics these clients represent. The problem comes when you have to repeat the process next year. If the same client returns next year and you want them to "count" again for your statistics - you will have to enter them again. You might even assign them a new number. In order for you to access their old file you will have to play around with cross-references to their old file number.

In DCAM we separate the concept of case from client. A client is a person. A case is a collection of activity pertaining to all or part of the work you or your organization will do for that person. In its simplest form, a case can be the work we do for the client this year. Next year, if the client returns, we simply open a new case and file next years' activity in it. More complex case models might include collections of activity pertaining to multiple parts of a treatment or service plan and be assigned to multiple treatment providers. In this way a Case Manager can manage a multidisciplinary model easily and still see the whole picture across time and activity group.

[ Group ] [ Person ] [ Role ] [ Contract ] [ File ] [ Case ] [ Contact ] [ Facility ] [ Schedule ] [ DCAM Concept 1 ] [ DCAM Concept 2 ]