ABSTRACT
The essential components of a viable high-risk screening system are identified in this report of a study of social work screening in New Jersey's acute-care hospitals. Although almost every hospital was found to use some form of screening, the most commonly used screening criteria tended to focus narrowly on identifying patients likely to have prolonged hospitalizations. The implications of these and other findings are discussed.
Subject(s)
Hospital Departments , Patient Admission , Social Work Department, Hospital , Age Factors , Aged , Diagnosis , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , New Jersey , Risk , Social Support , Socioeconomic FactorsABSTRACT
This is a report of a study which examined the impact of New Jersey's four-year experience with all-payer DRG's upon 82 hospital social work departments as these were reported by their directors. Although DRG's have made discharge planning, and thus social work, central to hospitals' financial health, departments have faced increased caseloads and some refocus of staff deployment, not always with compensatory increases in staff. Strategies to survive the cost-containment policies and other implications are noted.
Subject(s)
Diagnosis-Related Groups , Hospital Departments/organization & administration , Prospective Payment System , Social Work Department, Hospital/organization & administration , Evaluation Studies as Topic , Humans , New Jersey , Patient Discharge , Social Work Department, Hospital/economics , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
A comparison of selected New Jersey hospitals in 1975 and 1981 suggests that despite intensive attention to cost control, hospital social work departments have continued to expand and assume an increasingly important role in the hospital. The departments have sustained or enhanced their position with respect to the professionalization of the department, staff size, involvement in patient care, and participation in hospital decision-making. Losses were observed in such areas as hours of coverage and services to discharged patients.
Subject(s)
Hospital Departments , Social Work , New JerseyABSTRACT
Changes in demography, technology, and values have created new health problems and increased the number of people whose needs for service are extensive and complex. The authors describe an educational design intended to prepare social work students for the complicated new roles evolving for workers in health care.
