Cost containment in the concentrated care center: a study of nursing, bed and patient assignment policies.
In an effort to deliver the best possible care to seriously ill patients in the most cost-effective manner, Georgetown University has developed the Concentrated Care Center (CCC) as an essential component of the medical center complex. The design of the CCC, together with the application of controlled variable staffing procedures, permits considerable flexibility in the assignment of nurses (as well as patients) to individual units. This report outlines certain research hypotheses regarding policies designed to increase the cost-effectiveness of patient care in the CCC environment. Statistical techniques based on the theory of stochastic processes are developed to test these hypotheses and a FORTRAN IV computer program is developed to analyze one year of operational data from the CCC.
D003201:Computers; D003363:Cost Control; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004219:District of Columbia; D006745:Hospital Bed Capacity, 300 to 499; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008433:Mathematics; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D011383:Progressive Patient Care; D000078329:Workforce