Beth Wittmer Outlines Changes to Care Management During a Shift Toward Value-Based Care

Taking care of a patient in the shift to value-based care means utilizing care managers to answer questions when the physician isn’t available, says Beth Wittmer, RN, OCN, manager of care management at Florida Cancer Specialists and Research Institute.

Transcript

How has care management evolved in cancer care during the shift to value-based care?

We built this program for our company 3 years ago and the whole idea is that we were going to take care of the patient, all-encompassing. So instead of from doctor visit to doctor visit and occasionally the patient may call to the clinic—that call may not get answered until late in the afternoon. We’re eliminating those issues because we have care managers who are working remotely out of the clinic settings, and they’re there to answer those questions. Currently we have over a thousand phone calls going out and coming in every day just to our care management department, as well as a triage nurse that works with care management to field anybody that may not have a care manager. They’re helping assist with clinical issues.