title: The changing nature of the measurement of the economic impact of nursing care on health care organizations.
abstract: This paper adapts the perspective of organizational contingency theory to consider the changing nature of how the economic impact of nursing care upon health care organizations is measured. It is argued that useful measures of the economic impact of nursing care are a function of environmental, organizational, and technological circumstances. The increasing and diverse demands of health care consumers (environmental), the dramatic restructuring and re-engineering of the health care delivery system (organizational), and recent developments in the capabilities of and insights from information measurement practices (technological), have all provided opportunities for more meaningful measurement of the contributions of nursing care to the economic well-being of health care organizations.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. mcovaleski@bus.wisc.edu
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Covaleski
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D009718:Nurse Administrators / Q000458:organization & administration; D024802:Nurse's Role; D015401:Nursing Administration Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009739:Nursing Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration