51. A Cost Analysis of a Nursing Center's Services
- Author
-
Ervin, Naomi E., Wen-Yin, Chang, and White, Jeannette
- Subjects
Management ,Economic aspects ,Company business management ,Nurse practitioners -- Economic aspects ,Medical care -- Economic aspects ,Nursing services -- Management -- Economic aspects - Abstract
Community nursing centers have frequently been initiated through a combination of external and internal funding from a parent organization (Barger & Rosenfeld, 1993). After the initial funding phase, nursing centers [...], The authors describe the difficulties with finding adequate funding to support a nurse-practitioner run center established in 1992 in a Chicago area low-income neighborhood. The community demographics and input from patients determined that preventive health care and maternal-child services would be the focus of their primary care-oriented services. Problems included frequent staff turnover, loss of patients to Medicaid HMOs, and difficulty attracting patients with better reimbursement potential. A cost analysis was undertaken to attempt to ascertain whether or not the center could be financially viable under a variety of scenarios, keeping in mind its primary mission of providing primary care and improving community health. An 8-month long break-even analysis sought to establish the point at which operations would provide revenues sufficient to cover expenses. Unfortunately, the number of visits per hour required to support staff and overhead for the center appeared unrealistic in the face of a variety of constraints.
- Published
- 1998