NUR 621 It has often been said that nursing units are not revenue generators

Sample Answer for NUR 621 It has often been said that nursing units are not revenue generators

Re: Topic 5 DQ 2

Nursing units are revenue generators as opposed to the statement by the finance department that they do not generate revenue. Nurses are at the core of healthcare provision and close to 80% of all services in healthcare facilities are carried out in the nursing department. Nursing should not be regarded as an expense rather than revenue generating since healthcare facilities are indirectly compensated for nursing care in similar way they get compensated for physician and other allied health services. Indirectly, nurses have long had a hand in revenue generation due to the close connection between nurse recruitment and retention as well as physician recruiting and retention (Godsey et al., 2020). Having effective physicians implies that the facility also has good nurses who follow instructions from the physicians as caregivers. In this case, hospitals that have full qualified and motivated nursing workforce tend to not only attract but also retain physicians.

Additionally, nurses are considered the backbone of health care, offering essential care and support to patients and families. As such, they attract and generate revenue when they improve patient outcomes and satisfaction. Nurses have a direct effect on patient outcomes and satisfaction as key drivers of hospital revenues (Scott, 20222). For instance, studies demonstrate that higher nurse staffing levels are linked to reduced mortality rates, shorter stays in hospitals and fewer complications and even infections. These outcomes can enhance hospital’s overall quality performance and reduce costs thus leading to higher revenues, especially under the value-based healthcare model where hospitals get reimbursed through quality and not quantity.

Nurses also influence patient satisfaction rates through provision of compassionate, respectful and timely care. Patient satisfaction is used for reimbursement purposes under the value-based purchasing program. Medicare offers payment to hospitals based on their performance on patient experience surveys (Yakusheva et al., 2020). As such, nurses who deliver high quality care help hospitals to earn higher payments and avoid penalties demonstrating that they are revenue generators for their facilities. As such, nurses should be viewed and considered revenue generators and not just caregivers who are costly to the facility.

References

Godsey, J. A., Houghton, D. M., & Hayes, T. (2020). Registered nurse perceptions of factors

contributing to the inconsistent brand image of the nursing profession. Nursing outlook, 68(6), 808-821. DOI: 10.1016/j.outlook.2020.06.005

Scott, D. (2022 June 6). The way the United States pays for nurses is broken.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23076581/us-covid-health-care-nurses-pay-salary

Yakusheva, O., Rambur, B., & Buerhaus, P. I. (2020, August). Value-informed nursing practice

can help reset the hospital-nurse relationship. JAMA Health Forum, 1(8); e200931-e200931. DOI:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2020.0931

Sample Answer 2 for NUR 621 It has often been said that nursing units are not revenue generators

According to an article published in Nursing philosophy: an international journal for healthcare professionals, the United States spent approximately 17.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare, which makes them the first largest spender in the world (Lasater, 2014). In 2012, around a third of all healthcare costs were spend in acute care hospitals, which accounted for $880 billion. Often times, there are arguments that nursing units are not revenue generators in healthcare, which is simply not true. The skills that are most utilized in hospitals include nursing services, but they are poorly measured so it often times goes under reported. When patients are discharged from a hospital, they receive a bill that represents the care received during the inpatient stay. Instead of charging for actual services provided by nurses, the cost of nursing is embedded into the room and board item. This particular item is a fixed rate for all patients receiving care within the facility regardless of the actual amount of nursing services were required during the hospitalization. Because of the lack of representation on a hospital bill, the utilization of nurses is misrepresented in the U.S. and can be seen as problematic. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic many nurses who worked in pre-op/PACU, completing diagnostic procedures or elective admissions were furloughed. As the pandemic worsened, nurses were practically begged to come back to bedside to assist, but many were put-off by the cost-cutting actions of higher ups within the healthcare organizations. Because nursing services are misrepresented, mistakes like this can happen although nurses are the heart of healthcare.

References

Lasater K. B. (2014). Invisible economics of nursing: analysis of a hospital bill through a Foucauldian perspective. Nursing philosophy : an international journal for healthcare professionals, 15(3), 221–224. https://doi.org/10.1111/nup.12040

Yakusheva O, Rambur B, Buerhaus PI. (2020). Value-Informed Nursing Practice Can Help Reset the Hospital-Nurse Relationship. JAMA Health Forum. 1(8):e200931. doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2020.0931