Cost Effective
Care By Registered Nurses
Profile of a Cost
Effective Nurse
- Registered nurses are ideally positioned to be key players in
improving the cost-effectiveness of health care. Nurses are able
to provide a wide range of services including, health promotion,
disease prevention, curative , supportive and rehabilitative
care. Nurses are skilled in health assessment and they "have the
right combination of knowledge and skills for promoting,
maintaining and restoring health - nurses are the experts in
keeping people healthy" (Canadian Nurses Association, 1993, P.3).
Cost effective Nurse
Specialists
- The effectiveness of nurse practitioners in providing
primary health care has been well demonstrated: their client's
make fewer visits to emergency departments, have less admissions
to hospital and use fewer medications (Brown & Grimes, 1993;
Mitchell et al., 1993). The effectiveness of nurse-midwives has
been demonstrated through such outcomes of care as: lower rates of
episiotomy, forceps delivery, caesarian sections, analgesia, as
well as, higher five minute infant Apgar scores (Brown &
Grimes, 1993)
Ways & Means By
Which Nurses Save Money
- Nurses provide in-home intravenous therapy resulting in
savings of between 40% and 80%, compared to hospital care. An
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada program provides in-home IV antibiotic
therapy for an average daily cost of $65 to $70, compared to an
average daily hospital cost for similar patients of approximately
$380.00.
- A recent study found the cost of childhood immunization by
nurses in Alberta was one-third as much as similar services by
doctors in Ontario.
- A study in Burlington Ontario, shows that specially prepared
nurses could provide community health care normally done by higher
cost personnel. Analysis concluded that 20% to 30% of the work of
general practice physicians could be replaced by nurses resulting
in significant savings to the health care system.
- Every dollar invested in nutrition counselling for expectant
mothers savers over three dollars in hospital care for low birth
weight babies.