1. Economic Analysis of Clinical and Managerial Interventions – Excel worksheet Q5
An acute care hospital has found that having geriatric nurse specialists take charge of discharge planning for stroke patients reduces the length of stay from 6.1 days to 5.8 days. On average the geriatric nurse specialist (who earns $45 per hour including fringe benefits) spends 2.7 hours on discharge planning per patient. Supply and telephone costs are less than $15 per discharge plan. Your accounting staff tell you the average cost per day is $1,230 and the incremental cost per day is about $426.
a. Compute the nursing, fixed, and total costs (i.e., the cost of the program) (4 points).
b. Compute the length of stay cost change (i.e., the saving realized by the program) (2 points).
c. Compute the overall change in cost (2 points).
d. Is this innovation financially attractive? Write your answer here (2 points).
e. optional bonus: It was determined that 15% of the time, a basic discharge nurse is satisfactory at $25 per hour (including benefits) for 0.5 hours. Recompute the charges given this new information (3 points).
f. optional bonus: Is this updated innovation plan financially attractive? Write your answer here (2 points).