Managed care: an opportunity for nursing

In the first part of this paper we have introduced the concept of managed care and suggested that it can be seen as an opportunity for nursing. We have described what we consider to be one of the best tools that can be used to implement managed care, namely the care map. We have described the background to the development of the care map, highlighted its limitations and addressed the concerns of critics. In the second part of the paper we shall introduce the care delivery models of case management and care management and show how these together with care maps could be used by nurses to provide quality cost effective care