Patterns of case management activity in an intensive community support program: the first year

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Community Support Services
• Case Management Operations

Background:

• Intensive community support programs are crucial for patient care.
• Understanding case manager activity patterns is essential for program efficiency.
• Current data on time allocation in case management is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe changes in case manager activity patterns over the first year of an intensive community support program.
• To present a method for collecting and analyzing time budget data in case management.
• To inform program cost analysis through activity pattern insights.

Main Methods:

• Time budget data collection over six months.
• Recording predominant activity in 15-minute intervals.
• Analysis of proportional time spent on different service types.

Main Results:

• Mean time allocation: 35.3% direct services, 40.3% indirect services, 24.4% nonclinical services.
• Combined indirect and nonclinical services accounted for 64.7% of case manager time.
• Significant portion of time dedicated to non-direct client interaction activities.

Conclusions:

• Case manager time allocation in intensive community support programs is heavily weighted towards indirect and nonclinical services.
• The high percentage of indirect and nonclinical services warrants careful consideration in program cost-effectiveness evaluations.
• The presented method provides a framework for analyzing time budget data in case management.