Safe Staffing And Maintaining Financial Viability Discussion Response

Safe Staffing And Maintaining Financial Viability Discussion Response

Response: Safe staffing and Maintaining Financial Viability

Balancing cost-effectiveness with patient outcomes is challenging affirm. With increasingly limited healthcare resources, organizations are increasingly pressured to minimize resource use. I concur that effective resource use has been adopted at the cost of patient outcomes. Health systems such as health providers face fiscal challenges due to many factors, such as changing reimbursement rates. Such challenges have made hospitals and other healthcare outlets operate on thin margins with limited resources, thus, necessitating alternative cost-saving interventions to maximize limited resources (Werner, 2021). The general objective of effective resource use is to ensure profitability and increased financial viability for the health organization. Minimizing resource use, such as reducing the number of nurses and physicians, could help reduce costs associated with the delivery of care but can lead to reduced quality of care, which can also be costly in the long run. Reducing the number of healthcare staff could lead to strained human resources, thus, contributing to low quality of care Safe Staffing And Maintaining Financial Viability Discussion Response.

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While there is a need to manage costs, I believe that reducing healthcare staff is not a definitive solution. Instead, other approaches that can reduce costs but optimize patient outcomes and satisfaction should be considered. Besides what you have discussed as strategies to reduce costs and maintain or improve patient outcomes, other approaches can be considered to improve financial feasibility. First, standardization, contracting and outsourcing services such as human resources, laboratory and information technologies can help an organization reduce costs. Second, proper staff management is another approach to ensuring financial viability for health organizations. Due to acute physician and nursing shortages, layoffs might not be a realistic option, but proven and effective human resource management strategies such as motivating staff, rewarding, recognition, training and development and fair pay would enhance productivity and reduce costs. Thus, health organizations need to focus on innovative approaches that would optimize health outcomes and patient satisfaction while at the same time allowing the hospital to maintain an excellent fiscal position and growth.

References

Werner, K. (2021). Assessing the cost-effectiveness of facility-based emergency care in low resource settings.

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Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues

It is difficult to find a healthcare issue in which costs is not a competing factor. The shift in healthcare to a business model has often led to decisions rooted in cost effectiveness rather than patient outcomes (Kelly & Porr, 2018). The importance of safe staffing and maintaining financial viability are often seen as opposing factors in management decision making. Sometimes, to the detriment of patient outcomes, cost saving decisions are made without consideration of nursing staff input. But as with all difficult situations, sometimes solutions are found through collaboration, and thinking outside the box Safe Staffing And Maintaining Financial Viability Discussion Response.

As one example, hospitals often rely on maintaining low staffing rosters and supplementing with registry nurses as needed in order to meet staffing demands without the incurred costs of permanent staffing positions. However, one study showed that hospitals with lower staff rosters offset their savings due to longer patient stays (Griffiths et al., 2021). In a different staffing model, hospitals have developed an “in-house registry” system. In this system, nurses are paid at a premium rate to rotate within the hospital system. This way hospitals increase available staff while bypassing extra costs associated with relying on an outside agency (Christ, 2022). Both these scenarios address the goal of financial responsibility while exploring the bigger picture of patient outcomes. Because both ends of the specturm are valid points, the answer is often found somewhere in the mid-point of saving money without sacrificing our main objective of patient care.

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As one example, hospitals often rely on maintaining low staffing rosters and supplementing with registry nurses as needed in order to meet staffing demands without the incurred costs of permanent staffing positions. However, one study showed that hospitals with lower staff rosters offset their savings due to longer patient stays (Griffiths et al., 2021). In a different staffing model, hospitals have developed an â€œin-house registryâ€ system. In this system, nurses are paid at a premium rate to rotate within the hospital system. This way hospitals increase available staff while bypassing extra costs associated with relying on an outside agency (Christ, 2022). Both these scenarios address the goal of financial responsibility while exploring the bigger picture of patient outcomes. Because both ends of the specturm are valid points, the answer is often found somewhere in the mid-point of saving money without sacrificing our main objective of patient care Safe Staffing And Maintaining Financial Viability Discussion Response.

References:

Christ, G. (2022). Hospitals eye in-house staffing agencies to combat nursing shortage. Modern Healthcare, 52(9), 14.

Griffiths, P., Saville, C., Ball, J. E., Jones, J., & Monks, T. (2021). Beyond ratios – flexible and resilient nurse staffing options to deliver cost-effective hospital care and address staff shortages: A simulation and economic modelling study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2021.103901

Kelly, P., Porr, C., (January 31, 2018) “Ethical Nursing Care Versus Cost Containment: Considerations to Enhance RN Practice” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 23, No. 1, Manuscript 6.

References:

Christ, G. (2022). Hospitals eye in-house staffing agencies to combat nursing shortage. Modern Healthcare, 52(9), 14.