Case Study

Charlene is a community health nurse who works for a private home health agency. Charlene cares for pediatric clients who have diagnoses of chronic illnesses such as cystic fibrosis, juvenile diabetes, and muscular dystrophy. Charlene travels to her clients’ homes each day to administer medications and treatments and to provide education to her clients and their families.

Aside from Charlene’s clinical and educational duties, she also refers her clients and their families to various community resources. Many times, Charlene consults with the home health agency’s social worker to help resolve issues that the clients and their families face. The information that Charlene provides to her clients helps reduce some of the financial burden imposed by the chronic illnesses.  Charlene works with an 8-year-old client with cystic fibrosis who is denied state financial assistance.

Which of the following actions do you think Charlene may take to help this client?  Expand on the following 3 actions and describe how they would help in this situation:

1.      Ascertaining the reason for denial of the claim

2.      Reviewing the client’s application for incomplete data

3.      Calling the agency to clarify the situation.