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For Catherine M. Mullahy, RN, BS, CRRN, CCM, a hospital layoff led to a new career as an entrepreneur in case management.

Thirty years ago, Mullahy was working at a hospital when she was laid off due to budget cuts. Since then, she has founded two companies that have provided case management services, served as editor of the journal The Case Manager, helped create the certified case manager (CCM) credential, been president of the Case Management Society of America, and received the organization's Distinguished Case Manager of the Year award in 1999.

Mullahy, who is still president, CEO, and owner of the Mullahy & Associates case management and consulting firm in Huntington, N.Y., will share her expertise Feb. 26 at the NurseWeek Career Fair in Pasadena, Calif. She will discuss the value of case management and how to seize opportunities in the field.

A New Path

After Mullahy received her RN diploma from Kings County Hospital Center School of Nursing in New York in the 1960s, she worked in hospitals, mostly in what could be described as “traditional” nursing positions. In 1979, she was working in a non-nursing position at a hospital when she was let go and found her new path.

Her colleague's husband was employed by a worker's compensation insurance carrier that used the rehabilitation management services of a company that is now called Intracorp. This company “was the 'grandfather,' if you will, of what is now called case management services,” Mullahy explains. “They hired RNs and rehabilitation professionals and then trained them to provide these specialized services” to injured workers and help them return to their jobs.

Mullahy joined Intracorp in 1979, transferred to a similar company in 1981, and then started her own company, Options Unlimited, in Huntington, N.Y., in 1983.

Options Unlimited

The firm provided comprehensive case management services nationwide to clients that included health plans, self-funded employer groups, union health and welfare funds, and municipalities, as well as directly to consumers.

Over the next 20 years, the firm became recognized as a leader in the field, Mullahy says. Matria Healthcare acquired Options Unlimited in 2003; it now acts as Matria Healthcare's case management division.

Next Step

She still had a passion for case management, so she formed Mullahy & Associates in 2003. While Options Unlimited was a direct provider of case management services, Mullahy & Associates offers consulting and educational services. The firm serves both individuals and corporations — including professional associations, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, managed care companies, and governmental organizations — and provides programs both onsite and via distance learning.

The new company is also creating a direct-to-consumer model, in which case managers market their services directly to consumers, as well as to physicians and business groups in their communities. “The direct-to-consumer model creates the relationship solely between the patient and the case manager; fees are paid by the consumer directly to the case manager,” Mullahy says. “The case manager represents only the patient's interests, rather than those of a hospital, managed care organization, or other entity.”

Down the Road

Mullahy says she plans to “continue to grow the next generation of case managers” and complete the fourth edition of her book, The Case Manager's Handbook (Jones and Bartlett Publishers). The American Journal of Nursing named the publication its “Book of the Year” in 1998.

She adds that what she finds most rewarding is that ultimately, she and the case managers she has trained “will make a difference to the patients and families who are having increasingly difficult times navigating the healthcare delivery system and managing the more complex and chronic conditions they now have.”

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Rebecca Ray is the managing editor of NurseWeek's California edition. To comment, e-mail editorCA@nurseweek.com.

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