Duration of case management: Correlation with Medicaid pediatric patient outcomes

The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between the variable duration of case management and outcomes represented by the variables quality of life and functional ability. The samples were selected from archival data collected from the Maryland Medicaid pediatric rare disease population receiving REM case management services during fiscal year 2002. The Barthel Index measured the functional ability from the clinician perspective and PedsQL measured quality of life from the parent and child perspectives. Results indicated the perspectives of clinicians, parents, and children were significantly different for the same patient. Clinicians reported no significant correlations between duration of case management and functional ability as measured by the Barthel Index. Duration of case management was negatively correlated with physical and social functioning from the parent perspective for child-parent dyads. Duration of case management was also negatively correlated with children’s perceptions of physical functioning for the child-parent dyads. Duration of case management in a randomly selected patient sample demonstrated similar trends toward significance for physical and social functioning. Children and parents from the same family demonstrated significant differences in perceived quality of life for the patient