By Joan Westgor, MSN, RN, CCM
All the hype, social media exposure, and preparation activities lead to CMSA’s Hill Day, culminating with our 30-minute opportunity to engage a legislative staffer or the rare engagement with your senator or representative! …Relief its done. I’ve been there, and my tachycardia spontaneously resolves with a huge Yoga breathing exhale, thinking, “That went well.” The debrief bares our afterthoughts and validates our commitment to next year’s Hill Day. Not quite so fast; our advocacy continues daily and close to home.
*Treiger & Fink -Samnick 2016, illustrate The Impact of Advocacy relates “advocacy bears specific mention with regard to a case manager’s awareness and action pertaining to legislation and regulation”….Informed individuals articulate the boots-on-the-ground reality that legislative and regulatory actions have on day-to-day practice”.
Awareness, understanding, and articulating our current CMSA legislative priorities of Telehealth, Mental Health, and Work Force Development is the framework of our ASK to our elected officials. Our individual and collective personal/client related stories are the take home memories the legislative staffers hopefully will imbed for their sharing our stories.
We know we are the secret sauce for successful transitions of care at the right time. We know the value we bring and now we need to revisit our congressional contacts. We need to keep a visible presence with our individual representative as (case manager) constituent. Establishing a relationship of advocacy on the local level with staffers is key to promote our priorities.
Grassroots advocacy is key to getting the attention of our senators' and representatives' staff at their local district offices. We are a collective-minded organization with the goal of promoting the greater good for healthcare across the continuum.
Let’s see what the next steps are to get our boots on the ground!
*Treiger, T. M. & Fink-Samnick, E. (2016). COLLABORATE for Professional Case Management: A Universal Competency-based Paradigm; Wolter Kluwer Health, Philadelphia, PA
CMSA’s public policy initiative serves to represent member interests on issues affecting care management professionals and their patients' wellbeing. The CMSA Public Policy Committee has determined the following legislative focus for the coming years. If you have a public policy issue for consideration, please contact cmsa@cmsa.org.
Bio: USAF Reserve LtCol, Retired. Joan’s commitment, for what was known as Community Health, began early in her Diploma of Nursing education when the words of the instructor piqued her interest in “the patient’s discharge planning begins at admission”. Continuing with a BSN and MSN degree in Community Health, her career path revolved from in-patient clinical nursing into Utilization Management/Discharge Planner/Case Manager roles. Joan worked almost exclusively in San Antonio’s Air Force and Army hospitals, retiring 12/31/2017. Joan has been an active member of the Alamo Chapter for over 12 years, serving in board positions, conference planning, and developing the Public Policy Committee. Chapter members participated in meeting their Congressional staffers in San Antonio, phone calls to local and DC offices and Capitol Hill Day participation 2015, 2017; Virtual Hill Day 2021-2024.. The Alamo Chapter received the Chapter Excellence and Innovation award for two consecutive years. Currently Joan is a member of CMSA National Public Policy & Advocacy Committee.