Characteristics of the Provision of Case Management Services in the Community Setting in Andalusia Based on the RANGECOM Registry

Objective: To describe the characteristics of case management in terms of population served, interventions, use of services and outcomes such as mortality, readmissions, pressure ulcers, falls, drug problems and institutionalization.

Method: Follow-up study of a cohort, from the RANGECOM Multicentric Registry of Andalusia. The study population were patients included in the case management services of Health Centres and their family caregivers.

Results: Data from 835 patients with a mean age of 76.8years (SD:12.1), 50.24% women, are presented. They had an important comorbidity (Charlson 3.1, SD:2.5) and high dependence (Barthel 37.5, SD:31.4). Sixty-two point two percent of the interventions deployed by the case managers were grouped into three domains: behavioural (26.0%), health system (20.2%) and safety (14.1%). Mortality was 34.4% and hospital admissions 38.1%. Patients with more hospital readmissions had more visits to the Emergency Department (OR:1.41; 95%CI: 1.22-1.63), more telephone interventions by case managers (OR:1.12; 95%CI: 1.02-1.24) and imaging tests (OR:1.37; 95%CI: 1.17-1.60), together with greater caregiver burden (OR:1.31; 95%CI: 1.08-1.59), the presence of medical devices at home (OR:1.69; 95%CI: 1.00-2.87) and received less "Case Management" intervention.

Conclusions: The patients who absorb the demand of case management nurses present high complexity, for which they deploy behavioural interventions, navigation through the health system and clinical safety.