The application and new learning from the information of this course will help me as a nursing
director to better understand financial and management concepts, roles, and their implications on
nursing practice, organizational goals, and the overall quality and safety of the care being given to
patients.
A healthcare trend in the United States and globally is the nursing shortage as nurses are leaving the
practice. This was a trend before Covid and now post-pandemic, the shortage is becoming a critical
issue for healthcare and the care and protection of patients (Morris, 2022). There are several financial
implications for a healthcare organization that is facing a nursing shortage. The organization will
have increased costs to maintain nurses; needing to increase salaries, bonuses, incentives, and other
benefits to maintain the current staff and attract new staff. The cost of advertising and training newly
hired nurses also puts a strain on the organization’s budget. This is estimated to cost healthcare
organizations 4.2 million annually (Faulkner, 2021). The nursing shortage also affects the quality of
care (increasing readmissions and a 13% increase in mortality rates) and therefore has the potential to
decrease revenue as patients may seek better quality care at other healthcare organizations (Faulkner,
2021). Organizations with lower care quality may also experience malpractice or other care- related
claims resulting in high financial costs with the average claim being $181,000 (Jedlicka, 2022).
A healthcare trend that I would like to discuss is telemedicine. My last position was fully remote as a
resource nurse for the clinic. I was working out of Massachusetts while living in Naples. This trend is
important to healthcare and has many benefits. While there are also financial challenges to
telemedicine, there are financial benefits as well.
Prior to becoming a necessity during the Covid-19 pandemic, telemedicine was primarily utilized to
provide healthcare to patients in rural areas or areas where access to healthcare was not easily
available. When the pandemic began, it became necessary to provide basic care to all demographics.
This is increasing as it provides a way to provide cost efficient quality care to patients (Gajarawala &
Pelkowski, 2021). While initially lack of reimbursement was an issue, telehealth reimbursement has
improved with Medicaid and Medicare’s decision to cover remote monitoring for those with chronic
health conditions (Thomas, et al., 2019).
Another benefit to telemedicine is that the healthcare facility can better manage the budget for
specialist and providers salaries. For example, enticing practitioners to geographic locations is
difficult depending on such things as cost of living for that area or in rural and remote areas that may
not appeal to the prospective employee (Snoswell, North, & Caffery, 2020). Community hospitals are
often required to pay higher salaries to attract and retain physicians
(https://www.eagletelemedicine.com/advantages-of-telemedicine-economies-of-scale/)
Additionally, telemedicine can reduce the real estate costs to healthcare agencies. When it is not
necessary for every patient evaluation to occur in office, it allows for real estate space that does not
require more square footage, increasing the operating costs. Along with fewer exam rooms, the cost
for patient supplies, electricity, and operating costs would decrease (Sharma, 2021).
Gajarawala, S. N., & Pelkowski, J. N. (2021). Telehealth Benefits and Barriers. The journal for nurse
practitioners: JNP, 17(2), 218–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2020.09.013
Thomas, K. S., Durfey, S., Gadbois, E. A., Meyers, D. J., Brazier, J. F., McCreedy, E. M., Fashaw,
S., & Wetle, T. (2019). Perspectives of Medicare Advantage Plan Representatives on Addressing
Social Determinants of Health in Response to the CHRONIC Care Act. JAMA network open, 2(7),
e196923. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.6923
Snoswell, C. L., North, J. B., & Caffery, L. J. (2020). Economic Advantages of Telehealth and
Virtual Health Practitioners: Return on Investment Analysis. JMIR perioperative medicine, 3(1),
e15688. https://doi.org/10.2196/15688
Aneesh Sharma, A. (2021). Healthcare Economics: Financial Impact and Limitations of
Telemedicine. Current Trends in Clinical and Medical Sciences, 2(4).
Faulkner, B. (2021, March 18). The Shocking Truth about the Nursing Shortage in the United States.
ReferralMD. https://getreferralmd.com/2017/12/on-the-verge-of-a-nursing-
shortage/#:%7E:text=The%20nursing%20shortage%20also%20has%20financial%20impacts%20on,h
ealthcare%20industry%20at%20least%20%244.2%20million%20a%20year.
Jedlicka, J. (2022). What’s the real cost of burnout in the healthcare workforce? Ceridian.
https://www.ceridian.com/blog/cost-of-burnout-healthcare-workforce
Morris, G. (2022, April 27). Post-Pandemic Nursing Shortage: What It Means for Aspiring Nurses.
NurseJournal. https://nursejournal.org/articles/post-pandemic-nursing-shortage/
