Abstract
Nursing case management has been in practice since the 1800s when it was first created to coordinate and improve healthcare delivery to the poor and immigrant populations in the United States. In the 1950s and again in 1972, the government mandated programs that provided a community-based continuum of care for the mentally ill and elderly populations. Historically a community service, nursing case management moved into the acute care setting in the 1980s when Medicare implemented its prospective payment system organized as diagnosis-related groups, thus prompting hospitals to use nurse case managers to coordinate care and ultimately reduce costs.