Abstract
Efficient and equitable allocation of long-term care services by case managers depends on an accurate match of client needs with available resources. To date, however, systematic descriptions of case managers' decision-making process in service assignment have been lacking. This study employs an ethnographic approach to examine the rationale for service choice used by a multidisciplinary case management team within a consolidated model of community-based long-term care. It focuses on the team's assessment of "risk, " both to client and to organization, in providing certain high-cost categories of care, and identifies several key characteristics of the individual and the resource system used to formulate service decisions.
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