Introduction
Financial management is one of the important aspects of any Healthcare Organization and, therefore, critical because it contributes to the quality and provision of patient care. The above health environment is quite hard and challenging when patients need the best care, but there are challenges such as budget constraints as well as rising costs, which most doctors can hardly afford. (Goodman, et al., 2018) This essay will concentrate on a typical patient care issue that has a big effect on the cost of medical organizations – pressure injuries acquired in the ICU at the maintenance facility. The paper under discussion will focus on the decisive nature of financial management in the healthcare field and its influences on the cure. It will also engage in a literature search and an interview with two fellow workers about the patient care financial problem and how it might potentially affect the budget. In addition, solutions that may address this problem will be discussed in the essay on their possible practicality in real cases.
Patient Care Problem: Hospital-Acquired Pressure Injuries in the ICU
Pressure injuries are also called pressure ulcers; they are localized microorganisms of skin and tissues under the skin due to the effects of pressure or the phenomenon of shear on the skin. Delirium is a major challenge that has significant implications for healthcare, especially in the case of critically ill patients in high-care units—Intensive care units (ICU) (Swafford et al., 2016). APIs are a more common problem, and it is a costly issue for both healthcare providers and patients. In the United States, they estimate that it costs about $11 billion annually. Such wounds not only cause pain and discomfort to patients but also prolonged hospitalization, increased morbidity, and mortality (Goodman et al., 2018). This results in HAPIs would have great financial implications on the budget of the health care facility and force it to suffer some form of strangulation and thus deliver an average level of services to patients.
Literature Synthesis and Critical Analysis
A review of the literature clearly indicated that HAPIs are a major challenge facing the health sector and an immense burden on healthcare resource allocation. Swafford et al. (2016) revealed that through the earnings of HAPIs, the cost of care continues to increase, and there are long hospital stays and the need for further treatment. Swafford et al. (2016) found out that in case of an occurrence of HAPI, the average per-case cost is estimated to be $20,900 compared to $10,500 for patients without pressure injuries. This puts a huge economic strain on health care establishments role-playing, and the need for reviewing HAPIS Facts has become crucial to avert costs and even to enhance patient care.
In a separate study of the frequency and cost of infections in the ICU, Gaspar et al. (2019) found that the occurrence of HAPIs is common in the ICU, with an estimated prevalence of 23.5%. In addition, Manssor and Scott also reported that treating HAPIs in ICUs costs five times the average cost per patient in the hospital (Gaspar et al., 2019). This high price stems from the necessity of expensive specialized wound care or any other intervention and, ultimately, leads to a boost in the national expenses for the entire care system.
Based on the literature and studies on healthcare organizations’ budgets, it is clear that HAPIs play a vital role in the budgets. These are not only direct costs but also result in a higher number of indirect costs, such as the length of stay of hospitals and resource consumption. Thus, this patient care problem has to be addressed to prevent unnecessary tension, save the budget, and ultimately enable a comprehensive approach to providing quality care in the ICU.
Interviews with Co-Workers
In the attempt to delve deeper into the ICU’s issue of financial management of HAPIs, two co-workers were interviewed a unit manager and a Chief Nursing Officer (CNO). The unit manager in the ICU has been in service for a decade and is involved in the day-to-day management of activities; he manages budget matters for the unit. The CNO has spent five years in their position and is supposed to monitor the implementation of patient care delivery forums, finance management, and budget.
The unit manager stated that the organization had grappled with HAPI owing to the situation ever since. They mentioned that the fact that as a result of the high prevalence of HAPIs in the ICU has a great impact on the budget due to enormous costs in the special wound care products, the additional staff time, and extended hospital stays. As part of the measures, the unit manager stated that the organization had taken preventive steps such as regularly repositioning the patients as well as using specialized pressure-relieving rubber mattresses. Nevertheless, these interventions have yet to gain any significant traction, with the rates of HAPIs remaining high. The CNO also voiced similar concerns and said that the organization has been working to correct the problem of HAPIs in the last five years. Initiatives, including the establishment of the guide principles for skin assessment and the prevention of pressure ulcers as measures of control, have been embraced. Still, the organization again tends to have a high HAPI rate in the ICU. An issue that would weaken addressing the problem was mentioned by the CNO, although limited resources and shortage of staff.
Reflection on the Interviews
From the interviews, it can be deduced that the attitude regarding the financial dimension of the HAPIs in the ICU was different between the health provider unit manager and the others dealing with finance, such as the CNO. The unit manager was concerned about the direct costs depicted by HAPIs. Still, the CNO was paying attention to the indirect costs- she was only talking about costs of resources and staff time that she had yet to consider. This perception at these crossroads shows the multidimensional aspect of the financial impact of HAPIs and puts forward the necessity of cooperation between various functional roles and departments in handling this challenge.
Potential Solutions for HAPIs in the ICU
The literature review and co-worker interviews have brought to light the lack of effective solutions for counteracting HAPIs in the ICU. Several options have been suggested in the field, which denote the various strategies that are employed in the literature; these include pressure ulcer prevention programs, practice guidelines, and staff education on preventing pressure injuries (Gaspar et al., 2019). These solutions are aimed at the reduction of cases of HAPIs, which contributes to the lowering of expenses that healthcare organizations would have needed to set aside to treat HAPI infections that are not easy to treat and prevent. One possibility is the installation of an effective preventive program for guidelines based on evidence-based practice policy. Such a program should have regular skin evaluation, repositioning devices, and repositions and skin care educational initiatives for staff members. The program can also be tackled as a collaborative approach among nurses, physicians, and wound care specialists to have a customized care plan for HAPI. In relation to this, this strategy has proved to be successful in preventing the occurrence of HAPIs and ensuring proper patient health outcomes (Swafford et al., 2016).
Another area that deserves attention is to educate more staff on the crime operation. Analysis of staff comments on co-worker interviews revealed that resource scarcity is one of the major challenges associated with addressing HAPIs in the critical care unit. Through education and training of staff regarding the need to prevent HAPIs and letting them know of the most effective approaches to prevent them, healthcare organizations can relieve their resources, which may result in a decrease in the number of picking up HAPIs (Goodman et.al, 2018). However, the use of these solutions remains effective, only with organizational support and a new culture of organization. HAPI prevention needs to be the core tenet of the work of healthcare institutions through continuous quality initiatives to track the organizations’ performance in the prevention of HAPIs. Secondly, the need for interplaying among various departments and positions puts into practice a holistic methodology in farming up HAPIs in the ICU is also necessary.
Analyzing the Potential Budget Impact
A moderately positive budget impact of pressure ulcer prevention program that addresses multi-phase prevention of pressure ulcers and investment into staff education on HAPI prevention at the health care institutions is found. The initial implementation cost of these interventions may be rather high, as the primary needs include staff training and the purchase of advanced diagnostic equipment. However, despite these short-term implications, these interventions might lead to a reduced incidence of HAPIs and better patient outcomes, thus resulting in lower costs of shortened hospitalization and efficiency of resource utilization in the long term (Goodman et.al, 2018). Hence, though the general costs would be high in the beginning, the long-term budget impact will be substantial.
Conclusion
In conclusion, HAPIs represent a daunting financial burden on the budgets allocated to healthcare institutions, particularly in the ICU setting. Both the literature and interviews have covered the requirement for relevant measures to diminish the influence of this patient care issue and its monetary results. Thus, proposed solutions to solve the HAPI problem include HAPU prevention through programs as well as educational enhancement among the care staff (Goodman et.al, 2018). However, implementation of these solutions properly can be achieved only with the support of higher management, with the support of other roles and departments, as well as the change in organizational culture. In dealing with the policy of HAPIs in the ICU, healthcare organizations can be in a position to save lives, reduce financial strain, and, as a result, eradicate the menace so that the level of healthcare delivery is improved for the benefit of many people.
References
Gaspar, S., Peralta, M., Marques, A., Budri, A., & Gaspar de Matos, M. (2019). Effectiveness on hospital‐acquired pressure ulcer prevention: a systematic review. International wound journal, 16(5), 1087-1102.
Goodman, L., Khemani, E., Cacao, F., Yoon, J., Burkoski, V., Jarrett, S., … & Hall, T. N. (2018). A comparison of hospital-acquired pressure injuries in intensive care and non-intensive care units: a multifaceted quality improvement initiative. BMJ Open Quality, 7(4).
Swafford, K., Culpepper, R., & Dunn, C. (2016). Use of a comprehensive program to reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers in an intensive care unit. American Journal of Critical Care, 25(2), 152-155.
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