NURS 4021 WK 6 PRATICUM POWER POINT

In a bid to reduce the readmission rates in the United Healthcare Group, it is imperative that follow-up calls are made to the released patients. The successful implementation of the change calls for additional resources in a number of areas. The resources have to be allocated their respective amounts, which should reflect in their different budgets, such as capital budgeting, salary budget, and the operating budget (Sullivan, 2012).

The change project involves the implementation of post-discharge calls to monitor patients, hence prevent readmissions. Thus, the hospital needs resources that include personnel, equipment, technology, and travel in some instances. Additionally, Sullivan (2012) argues that employee motivation and continual development helps improve the job performance. As such, the hospital will be required to put additional resources for the purposes of employee motivation and education.

Telephone calls will require the installation of an additional four telephone lines in the hospital, specifically for the follow-up calls. The hospital will incur the purchase cost of $500 for the phones. The installation cost will amount to $100. The maintenance and the subscription fees for the phones will be about $300 per year. Thus, the hospital will incur a capital budget of $600 for the telephone lines, acquisition, and $300 operating budget for the telephones.

The change involves keeping in touch with discharge patients through telephone calls. As such, the hospital will need to employ additional staff, in the form of nurses, who will supplement the existing body nurses in assessing the patients to be put on the follow-up program and making the calls. In this area, the hospital will need to add an additional two nurses. These will reinforce the existing workforce, who will be used to make the required follow-up calls and offer the necessary instructions. Additional tasks require the addition of staff (Sullivan, 2012). The salaries of the staff will be about $8400 for the additional staff. Thus, the hospital will incur an additional $8400 salary budget for the program.

Education for the nursing staff will be required so as they are acquainted with communicating with the patients, assessing their condition remotely, making critical decisions and offering the necessary instructions to the patients. Thus, a seminar to educate the nurses on phone etiquette, the questions to ask and the kind of information to guide on will be held. This exercise will cost the hospital about $1000, for a week’s education of the nurses at the hospital premises. The change entails the introduction of tasks that the nurses were not accustomed to, which requires the enrichment of their knowledge (Sullivan, 2012).

The major objective of the project is to reduce the instances of hospital readmissions for the patients. As such, the nurses may be called to task by visiting some of the patients in their homes, depending on their conditions. Such cases are expected to be very few. As such, the hospital will set aside $1000 per year for such visits as the need arise.

Budget Summary

This project is very interesting to me because as nurses, we face are faced with the challenge preventing skin tear and breakdown with incontinent patients. Continuous exposure to urine and feces is one of the most common causes of skin breakdown. The chemical present in these waste products have an effect on the skin making it fragile and causing it to break and injure easily, so changing patient’s position and keeping them dry is very crucial in preventing this problem. But because of cost, proper method are not utilize. Even though the chux are less expensive but the frequent  use of  barrier ointment or moisture sealants available in the market which are helpful for they form a protective barrier on the skin can become expensive, retraining staff members and new employees on skincare and prevention of decubs can also incur some expenses.

References

Sullivan, E. J. (2012). Effective leadership and management in nursing (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.