DorlandHealth

Where Do You Stand?

We travel to the ballot box next month to cast a vote for the 44th President of the United States with the full awareness that health care is in for a change. To what degree and in what direction remains to be seen. Nevertheless, it is clear that case management — as a tool that the government, employers and organizations have utilized in securing quality and safety, providing access to services and containing costs — is in a unique position to help facilitate the transition.

 To achieve continued success, case management will need to adapt to new situations. And to know where it is headed, it must know where it has been. The 2008 Salary and Trends Survey presented here provides a snapshot of the practice’s inner mechanisms, and in so doing helps portray present and future opportunities.

This year’s respondents totaled just short of 700 professionals from across the continuum of care. The objective data allows you to reflect on your practice and gain insight into the direction in which the practice is heading.

An Overview of the Results

This year a higher percentage of men responded to the survey, though women, at 91 percent, still predominate the practice. Nearly 80 percent of all respondents fall between the ages of 46-65. Alarmingly, just 5 percent of respondents are under the age of 35 — a figure that, while likely exaggerated in these results, speaks to the growing concern over the aging of practitioners and the void in the younger ranks.

Case managers, it turns out, form a well- educated group. Two-thirds of respondents hold a graduate degree, while another 18 percent are in the processing of obtaining one. Eighty percent of respondents have at least one of the nine major CM certifications.

35% of respondents report that their organization is currently increasing the size of its case management department

Other results are just as encouraging. More than 35 percent of respondents said that their organization is currently increasing the size of its case management department, compared to just 9 percent of organizations that are actively decreas- ing it. Furthermore, while 11 percent are currently planning expansion, just 2 percent are planning a contraction. It is heartening to hear that greater than 40 percent of organizations have or plan to establish a formal mentoring program.

Finally, it appears that individual case mangers are making good wages. More than 70 percent of respondents report that they earn more than $60,000 per year. What follows is a glimpse of the results, which can be found in their entirety online. Click here to download the entire survey results.

If you have questions, comments or suggestions regarding the 2008 Salary and Trends Survey, please e-mail the editor in chief at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .