Introduction
One of the challenges a home health registered nurse often faces is inefficient resource use. Resources may include equipment, medical supplies, and employee time. It can have a significant negative impact on the budget, resulting in higher hospital costs. Moreover, this issue is a serious management problem that requires the development of unique methods and strategies to address it. Therefore, this paper examines resource inefficiency in the home healthcare setting.
Advantages of In-Home Care
Initially, in-home care was conceived as the best way to reduce patient treatment costs. Treating long-term illnesses or conditions can be costly for a hospital (Sabetsarvestani et al., 2022). Therefore, in-home care has become an excellent alternative, enabling patients to receive the necessary medical care at home. It helps improve patient treatment outcomes by reducing the stress of hospital stays and lowering healthcare costs.
Drawbacks of In-Home Care
However, this approach has several problems that affect the budget, including inefficient resource use. Hence, the nurse leader’s role is to reduce hospital costs and promote efficient use of resources through appropriate management strategies and process monitoring. Inefficient use of resources arises for two main reasons: limited healthcare resources and difficulties in managing in-home care. Jansen et al. (2021) note that today, “healthcare needs increasingly outweigh available resources,” which is why policymakers must continually analyze the field and reallocate resources more efficiently (p. 983).
Moreover, because resource use directly impacts the budget, optimizing this process requires thorough financial analysis. Inefficient use of resources at home increases employees’ workload, leading to higher staff costs and overtime for healthcare providers. Consequently, policymakers are highly interested in optimizing resource use.
Despite the many benefits that in-home care provides to both hospitals and patients, it faces certain challenges. A major impediment to improving resource efficiency is the inherent difficulty in managing care provision within the home setting. One of the main problems is the need for more support to control the interaction between the healthcare provider and the patient (Sabetsarvestani et al., 2022).
At home, the patient or their family can take up significantly more of the healthcare worker’s time than in the hospital. It increases the burden on healthcare workers and adds to their work hours, potentially leading to burnout. In addition, it is more difficult to track the use of equipment and medicines at home, which can lead to inefficient use.
All this negatively affects the budget and is a significant financial management issue for the healthcare system. For example, inefficient use of resources in in-home care can increase an institution’s restocking costs, staff time, and administrative costs.
Addressing Extra Costs of In-Home Care
Therefore, many hospitals implement resource use management (RUM) to address this issue. It enables hospital management to assess available resources, match them with needs, and allocate them efficiently, taking into account the institution’s financial capabilities (Janssen et al., 2021). This approach helps optimize resource use, but developing protocols and standards for the management of in-home care is also necessary.
In-Home Care Regulation
In-home care is regulated primarily by local health departments and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). For example, CMS has established regulations governing the operation of home health agencies, including policies on medication procurement and service quality monitoring (Home Health Agencies, n.d.). In addition, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) plays a significant role in regulating in-home care, ensuring the provision of quality medical services in accordance with the healthcare system’s standards.
Conclusion
In conclusion, inefficient resource utilization negatively impacts budgets by driving up hospital expenditures on staffing, medicines, and medical supplies. This problem is further compounded in home care settings by specific obstacles to effective in-home care management. Therefore, optimizing these processes and eliminating the financial burden on hospitals require the development of policies and management strategies. Many hospitals already use RUM, but it needs to be developed to be effective for in-home care.
References
Home health agencies. (n.d.) CMS.gov.
Janssen, L.M.M., Drost, R.M.W.A., Paulus, A.T.G., Garfeld, K., Hollingworth, W., Noble, S., Thorn, J.C., Pokhilenko, I., & Evers, S.M.A.A. (2021). Aspects and challenges of resource use measurement in health economics: Towards a comprehensive measurement framework. PharmacoEconomics 39, 983–993 (2021).
Sabetsarvestani, P., Mohammadi, F., Tehranineshat, B., Bijani, M., & Fereidouni, Z. (2022). Barriers to efficient management of in-home care: A qualitative content analysis. Nursing Open, 9(2), 1200-1209.