Learn Best Practices for Hiring High Quality Care Managers
Talented care managers are in limited supply, but very much in demand because the number of chronically and seriously ill individuals is growing. Americans are living longer, and the workforce is aging, resulting in a critical need for highly skilled care managers.
With regard to Medicare, the California Health Care Almanac reported that California beneficiaries were at 4.5 million in 2010. Only two years later, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation reported California beneficiaries of Medicare reached 5.1 million. Both organizations have stated that as the population ages, the state will continue to see a high percentage of Medicare enrollees as well as an aging population also eligible for Medi‐Cal.
With the growing number of Medicare and Medi‐Cal beneficiaries alone, it is crucial for health plans to recruit talented case managers, care managers, care coordinators, and others who coordinate care, assure quality, and optimize outcomes for people enrolled for their medical care coverage.
Before starting the recruitment process, consider the following five factors when searching for your new case manager:
- Create a recruitment policy. Every organization should have a policy on recruitment. Having a policy ensures that everyone involved in the recruitment process is working toward the same goals, following the same processes and reviewing results with the same selection criteria.
- Look beyond the cover letter. Recruiting the right candidate is about more than just searching for the best cover letter and resume. Hire a care manager who will be a great addition to your company culture and become invested in your organization. He or she should be dedicated to learning and working the mission of care management.
- Education is essential. The right candidate will have an educational background that complements your business. Just as important as the potential employee’s degree, however, is their enthusiasm to continue their education, as the health care industry is always evolving.
Still, finding a consistent and reliable resource for quality education that is easily accessible and affordable can be a challenge. That is why with the support of California Health Care Foundation and The SCAN Foundation, the CSU Institute for Palliative Care worked with health plan leaders and care managers to create Care Excellence — a new resource for training all levels of health plan care managers to prepare them in all phases of their career for success.
“It allows you to hire brand new graduates out of nursing school or social work school and help that person get the full suite of skills that they need to be able to work with complex populations.”
– Dr. Kelly Pfeifer, Director of High-Value Care at California HealthCare Foundation
Today’s recruits expect and need entertaining and engaging curriculum in order to learn quickly and apply new skills to their new role. Therefore, Care Excellence’s learning management system is far beyond webinars and video playbacks. Experts in the field with significant care management real-world experience created the courses, which are delivered online with highly interactive activities and testing to assure deeper integration.
- Search for skills necessary for success. Whether a registered nurse or social worker, the right candidate for your care management team will also have the necessary skills to succeed at your organization. Although a potential employee can further his or her education to strengthen their skills, other skills are not as easily taught.
First impressions are important. An applicant with a confident attitude makes a good first impression. Your workplace will benefit from people who are confident they can learn and not only perform as needed, but excel in their new position.
- Education is also essential for YOU. Care Excellence provides a flexible online source of continuing education for care managers, but also for supervisors, managers and others in leadership roles. The Care Excellence Leadership series teaches leaders how to effectively supervise and mentor their case management team, resulting in enhanced staff orientation and onboarding, improved staff satisfaction, decreased turnover, reduced burnout and overall team effectiveness.
“The management program for care excellence is focused on helping managers recruit the best, retain the best, and keep a high morale,” Pfeifer said.
Why Care Excellence is THE Training Program for Your Case Managers
Whether you prefer to train from top to bottom or bottom up, consider this: Care Excellence was designed to help you develop a training program that fits both your immediate, short-term training needs, such as quick onboarding, and your long-term needs.
In the short-term model you can select an individual training module to laser focus your training to address a specific need. A long-term approach may be to train the leadership and support them in training new recruits. Either way, Care Excellence’s broad curriculum is configured to give today’s leadership the educational resources needed for both quick onboarding of new recruits and updating the skills of more senior team members with long-term strategies.