Course 

NR 552 Economics Of Healthcare Policy

Solution 

The Emergency department normally experiences a surge in the number of patients. The clinical stability of patients varies considerably. To provide optimal care for patients a more flexible and responsive staffing pattern is required. In delivering high-quality and timely care in the Emergency Department, correct staffing is essential. A combination of the increased number of patients and shortage of nurses in the Emergency Department has resulted in the formulation of a number of staffing models (Gedmintas et al., 2010). This paper will, however, address the case-mix model which quantifies the type and number of patients or diseases that a nurse attend to or treat (Harrington & Swan, 2003).

Case-mix uses diseases as the main criterion for measurement because it forms the primary reason for consuming hospital services (Harrington & Swan, 2003). This system puts patients into categories based on acuity, need or dependency. Then, the service provided to the patients and the required time for each service by each nurse is computed. From here, average nursing resources needed per-patient in each shift is established (Harrington & Swan, 2003).…please click the purchase button below to access the entire solution at $5