What Is A Case Manager?

Assessor | Coordinator | Advocate

Case managers provide a range of services to assist individuals to achieve a better quality of life. They play an important role in assessing the needs of their clients. Based on the initial assessment, case managers formulate a care plan and coordinate care for the individual and their families. The case manager helps identify appropriate providers and facilities throughout the continuum of services, ensuring that available resources are being used in a timely and cost effective manner. As an advocate for the clients, the case manager collaborates with other professionals in the healthcare delivery team to obtain the needed services.

Sometimes, the terms care management and care coordination are used to describe the work of case management. Titles for case managers may differ in each institution, for example: case managers, care transition specialists, patient navigators, care manager, care assessors, etc. Hence, for simplicity’s sake, the term case management and case manager are used in this CMSS’s website, but the information also applies to care management, care assessors and care coordination.