title: Best practice case management for improved medical adherence.
abstract: Less than optimal treatment adherence for many health conditions impedes clinical progress, leading to increased morbidity, mortality and health care costs, particularly for low-income and racial and ethnic minority patients. When properly understood as a complex phenomenon involving patient, provider, and health system interacting factors, adherence improvement is a natural target for social work's multi-system model of case management. We present five key elements for a generic "best practice" case management blueprint applicable to a range of medical settings. The theory and evidence base for the elements are discussed and illustrated with SAFe, a tested social work case management program to improve adherence following abnormal cancer screens.
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA. vourleki@umbc.edu
authors.forename: Betsy
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vourlekis
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ell
mesh_terms: D019090:Case Management / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012947:Social Work; D014481:United States