Which of the following statements is true regarding costs of care?

Question

a. Certain savings come from cutting hospital personnel and shortening patient stays.
b. Hospitals need to keep patients in the facility longer if they want to continue to make a profit.
c. If an institution is going to provide quality care, it might as well accept that it will see a loss of profits.
d. Providing quality care is costly, but total savings can be realized when one looks at the whole picture.

Answer 1

ANS: D
Providing more and better care can lead to increased costs in the short-term analysis, but is also likely to produce savings because of fewer complications, return visits for complications, and increased patient and health care provider satisfaction, leading to subsequent visits for other concerns and referrals.
There is no evidence that long-term savings actually occur when a hospital implements these strategies. In fact, recent research findings demonstrate that increased mortality and complications occur with decrease in BSN-prepared nursing staff numbers in relation to patient numbers.
Longer stays do not necessarily improve the economic outlook of hospitals. Longer stays can result in reduced profit, particularly when payment is based on average cost of stay for standard procedures and illnesses.
Although costs do go up when providing quality care, there are also cost savings, often resulting in no difference in total profits.