This chapter introduces case management as a principal cornerstone in the delivery of cost effective, quality healthcare. Since the advent of modern healthcare initiatives, case management design and structure has been consistently applied in healthcare practice across the continuum: horizontally, vertically, nationally, and internationally. Moreover, its strategies have been practiced successfully in the care of people, ill and healthy, in areas of public health, behavioral health, long term care, rehabilitation, medicine, nursing, and social work. Through identification and definition of its principles and standards of practice, and through discussion of the role and function of case management professionals, the author hopes to demonstrate that the implementation of such strategies can optimize the success of clinical operations and help ensure fiscal viability in the global healthcare marketplace.

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