You are going to look at decision making in health care and explore the cost-benefit analysis of making certain decisions. You will explore the concept of opportunity costs and the consequences of our decisions by identifying what we must sacrifice to choose alternate options. You will examine potential long-term solutions to address staffing shortages and consider how local labor markets and other market factors influence staffing and budgeting. You will weigh all of those variables against the needs of our organization and our patients working in a real-life exercise indicative of problems faced by every health care leader currently working in health care.
assume you are the executive director for a for-profit home care agency, and you are experiencing a shortage of staff in nursing. You are having to turn away clients because you are not able to provide staff to make the visits. Your task is to complete the cost-benefit analysis to determine what your best course of action is. You are currently short of four full-time nurse positions to meet your current client load. Each full-time nurse position equates to 20 clients per week, with one hour for a visit and one hour for travel and documentation time for each client. This means you will need to reduce by 80 clients per week or add staff. Your current client load for the agency is 160 clients. You have two management nurses that process intakes, manage quality, ensure compliance, and perform audits for pending federal surveys. They are salaried and do not see clients in the home currently.
Include an executive summary with an overview of the purpose and content of the cost-benefit analysis.
Write 12 double-spaced pages for each option that includes:
Option Title.
Proposal: Brief description of the option.
Benefit: List the benefits associated with this option.
Cost Associated: List the costs associated with this option.
Opportunity Cost: List what might be given up if this option is selected.
Detailed Explanation: Explain how the cost-benefit analysis for the option aligns with organizational needs and future growth.
Address the following for each option:
Non-monetary benefits, such as improved customer satisfaction, associated with the option.
Non-monetary costs associated with the option. For example, productivity may decrease initially as people adjust to new policies and procedures associated with the option. At the same time, productivity is likely to increase once people adjust to the new policies and procedures.
Although these factors may be difficult to quantify, successful health care leaders are able to weigh nonmonetary and monetary considerations when making their purchasing and budgeting decisions.
Spell out the pros and cons between this option and the issue presented in this assessment.
Explain how the concept of opportunity cost applies to the option.