TY - JOUR
T1 - Care Managers and Role Ambiguity
T2 - The Challenges of Supporting the Mental Health Needs of Patients with Chronic Conditions
AU - Lattie, Emily G.
AU - Burgess, Eleanor
AU - Mohr, David C.
AU - Reddy, Madhu
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank all the CMs for their participation in this study. This work was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (K08 MH112878).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - As U.S. healthcare organizations transition to value-based healthcare, they are increasingly focusing on supporting patients who have difficulties managing chronic care, including mental health, through the growing role of care managers (CMs). CMs communicate with patients, provide access to resources, and coach them toward healthy behaviors. CMs also coordinate patient-related issues internally with healthcare practitioners and externally with community organizations and insurance providers. While there have been many interaction design studies regarding the work of clinical and non-clinical healthcare providers and how best to design support systems for them, we know little about the work of CMs. In this study, we examine the role of CMs, particularly focusing on their work to support patient mental health, through interviews with 11 CMs who are part of a large Midwestern U.S. health system. Workflow observations were conducted to supplement the interview data. We describe the role of CMs and identify challenges that they face in supporting patient mental health. A key challenge is a high degree of role ambiguity in this professional role. We discuss sociotechnical implications to better support care delivery processes and technologies for the delivery of mental health services by CMs.
AB - As U.S. healthcare organizations transition to value-based healthcare, they are increasingly focusing on supporting patients who have difficulties managing chronic care, including mental health, through the growing role of care managers (CMs). CMs communicate with patients, provide access to resources, and coach them toward healthy behaviors. CMs also coordinate patient-related issues internally with healthcare practitioners and externally with community organizations and insurance providers. While there have been many interaction design studies regarding the work of clinical and non-clinical healthcare providers and how best to design support systems for them, we know little about the work of CMs. In this study, we examine the role of CMs, particularly focusing on their work to support patient mental health, through interviews with 11 CMs who are part of a large Midwestern U.S. health system. Workflow observations were conducted to supplement the interview data. We describe the role of CMs and identify challenges that they face in supporting patient mental health. A key challenge is a high degree of role ambiguity in this professional role. We discuss sociotechnical implications to better support care delivery processes and technologies for the delivery of mental health services by CMs.
KW - Care management
KW - Healthcare organizations
KW - Mental health
KW - Sociotechnical systems
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U2 - 10.1007/s10606-020-09391-z
DO - 10.1007/s10606-020-09391-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 34149187
AN - SCOPUS:85100133410
SN - 0925-9724
VL - 30
JO - Computer Supported Cooperative Work: CSCW: An International Journal
JF - Computer Supported Cooperative Work: CSCW: An International Journal
IS - 1
ER -
