title: A pilot study to explore the feasibility of using theClinical Care Classification System for developing a reliable costing method for nursing services.
abstract: While nursing activities represent a significant proportion of inpatient care, there are no reliable methods for determining nursing costs based on the actual services provided by the nursing staff. Capture of data to support accurate measurement and reporting on the cost of nursing services is fundamental to effective resource utilization. Adopting standard terminologies that support tracking both the quality and the cost of care could reduce the data entry burden on direct care providers. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of using a standardized nursing terminology, the Clinical Care Classification System (CCC), for developing a reliable costing method for nursing services. Two different approaches are explored; the Relative Value Unit RVU and the simple cost-to-time methods. We found that the simple cost-to-time method was more accurate and more transparent in its derivation than the RVU method and may support a more consistent and reliable approach for costing nursing services.
authors.affiliation: Brigham and Women‟s Hospital, Boston, MA ; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Patricia C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Dykes
authors.affiliation: Rutgers College of Nursing, Newark, NJ.
authors.forename: Dean
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wantland
authors.affiliation: Medicomp Systems Inc., Chantilly, VA.
authors.forename: Luann
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Whittenburg
authors.affiliation: Brigham and Women‟s Hospital, Boston, MA ; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lipsitz
authors.affiliation: SabaCare, Arlington, VA.
authors.forename: Virginia K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Saba
mesh_terms: D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000145:classification; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000145:classification*; D048108:Nursing Informatics; D009737:Nursing Records / Q000145:classification; D009739:Nursing Services / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled
keywords: CCC; Clinical Care Classification System; cost; electronic health record; nursing services; terminology standards