Conflict to cooperation: integrating social work into your CM model.

Ann Marie Distasio, RN, BSN, MSA, became acutely aware of the turf battle between RN case managers and social workers when she began work as the director of case management at Memorial-Hermann Memorial City Hospital in Houston. She saw a real fear in her social workers that their importance to the department was compromised. But a common goal among hospitals is a revised approach to case management that negates the fear. It enforces a sharing philosophy, making sure that each discipline's expertise is used most appropriately to advance the best patient management.