For a study, researchers sought to explain how one company created a financial case for expanding a wound, ostomy, and continence (WOC) nursing team.
The facility, an 862-bed urban academic medical center with a specialization in gastrointestinal surgery, was a component of a multi-hospital system. To create a staffing plan, the WOC nurse staff and the director of nursing collaborated. They examined workload and volume increase, benchmarked internal and external staffing, and compared markets after discovering a lack of published staffing norms for WOC nurses. The plan showed how fewer WOC nurses would have an impact on care outcomes.
Based on the case presented, the Off Budget Investment Team committee was confident that adding more WOC nurse resources would benefit the organization in terms of quality and finances by lowering the incidence of hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPI) and raising the number of ostomy consultations. The approval of extra full-time equivalents was subject to a promise to lower the incidence of HAPIs year over year and to evaluate the increased expenses associated with treating a HAPI specifically for this organization.
Clinical outcomes that affected patient experience, direct and indirect costs, rankings, reputation, liability, and compensation for performance benefit from the contributions made by wound ostomy continence nurses.
