Case management: a week in the life of a clinical case management team

This paper describes the work of a clinical case management core team (four nurses and an occupational therapist) during the course of a week. Information was gathered through non-participant observation of the team by two independent researchers. Transcripts produced from the data recorded were examined. From this, seven categories of activity were identified: planned client contact; unplanned client contact; family/carer contact; liaison; administration; team information sharing and supervision, training and personal development. These categories were felt to encompass the range of activities practised by the team. The amount of time that case managers spent engaged in these core functions was calculated. Detailed examples are presented. Results are discussed with reference to Kanter's components and principles of clinical case management.