HCML

Health and Case Management Limited (HCML), the leading provider of professional rehabilitation case management and employment services, has today announced the completion of its core professional case management Standards.

The Standards, developed especially for HCML by members of its Medical Advisory Board (MAB), seek to establish best-practice principles for case management delivery and performance. In addition, the Standards also formalise HCML’s central ethos of promoting quality, value and optimal outcome for every client and individual it serves, ensuring a comprehensive client-focused approach and maximising both ‘stay-at-work’ and ‘return-to-work’ outcomes.

Professor Nick Kendall, reputed clinical psychologist and Member of HCML’s MAB, states:

As the industry leader we felt it was important to define our key values for training, audit and marketing purposes amongst others, and have invested much time and many resources into their generation. They were constructed based on a comprehensive evidence review of case management and an extensive analysis of the eight major sets of relevant worldwide standards, to create a definitive ‘best of the best’ set of values.

In producing the standard, the MAB examined reports, manuals and existing standards from American Accreditation Healthcare Commission (URAC); Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) in New Zealand; Case Management Society of America (CMSA); Case Management Society of Australia (CMSA); Case Management Society UK (CMSUK); the Rehabilitation Accreditation commission (CARF) in the US; the Vocational Rehabilitation Association (VRA) in the UK.

These statements of expected performance are separated into two types; Content Standards, focussing primarily on practice, and Process Standards, regarding delivery and performance. The rationales behind the importance of each, the interpretation and the usage guidance describing desirable actions, processes and outcomes, are carefully detailed for each statement. In addition, the Standards will be fully embedded in the training, auditing and evaluation activities of HCML, further ensuring its services are best of class and its case managers continue to receive the most comprehensive training and development available.

Helen Merfield, Chief Executive of HCML and winner of the ‘Outstanding Individual Achievement’ award at the 2008 Rehabilitation First Awards, said:

HCML Standards provide the basis for the highest quality evidence-based professional case management within the UK. We consider it the fundamental responsibility of every individual within the organisation to adhere to these standards, and hope that they will also set the values and working ethos externally, forming authoritative standards for the industry in general.

Kelwyn Yeo, Head of Operations at HCML, said:

These standards are so fundamental in how we deliver our case management services and will only improve on the positive rehabilitation and return to work results we are already achieving. The standards will be the foundation of our training programme for new and existing staff.

Set up in 2003, HCML has the largest number of in-house case managers in the UK and has worked with eight of the 10 major insurers, over 1000 solicitors firms and 1800 major employers from a wide variety of market sectors, successfully helping over 10,000 people. In 2006 the Medical Advisory Board was introduced to help provide guidance on service development, clinical governance and the most up to date evidence based research from around the world. Members of the board are some of the UK’s leading clinical authorities, and also includes Professor Mansel Aylward, Professor Kim Burton and Professor Mark Gabbay.