Financial Management and Dissemination of Evidence-Based Practice – Cost benefit analysis example

Financial Management and Dissemination of Evidence-Based Practice – Cost benefit analysis example

Financial Management and Dissemination of Evidence-Based Practice (3 credits)

Cost Benefit Analysis (70 points/ 15% of final grade)

Supports SLO 1 & 2

1. What are the cost benefits (e.g., increased reimbursement, decreased length of stay, reduced readmissions which will increase reimbursement, reduced staffing needs, improved wait times so more patients can be seen):

Implementing an educational program led by nurse leaders to enhance awareness of adolescent depression screening in primary care, sponsored by healthcare insurance companies, offers several cost benefits.  According to Siniscalchi et al. (2020), improving staff knowledge and skills in recognizing and screening for depression using tools like the PHQ-9 helps achieve early detection, leading to timely intervention and treatment. The intervention can reduce the severity of depression cases, decreasing hospital admissions and readmissions related to untreated mental health issues, which would increase reimbursement for the clinic. Early intervention also helps prevent complications like suicide attempts or substance misuse, which further reduces the need for emergency care and long-term psychiatric treatment, saving on healthcare costs (Le et al., 2021). In addition, effective depression management can lead to shorter lengths of stay for patients requiring acute care. Improved screening can streamline clinic workflows, leading to better patient flow and shorter wait times, allowing more patients to be seen and treated efficiently. These outcomes benefit the clinic and the insurance companies through reduced healthcare expenditures and increased reimbursement tied to positive health outcomes.

2. How could the benefits of this project cover the implementation costs over the next five years (e.g., How will this project save your organization money)?

Potential advantages of the nurse-led educational program for adolescent depression screening include the fact that by decreasing long-term healthcare costs, such a program can get over its start-up expenditures within five fiscal years. Singh et al. (2022) found that recognizing depression at the onset and escalating the treatment of the disorder help stop the worsening, thus lowering the levels of expensive subsequent care, including hospitalization, psychiatric care, or even emergency services. With improved efficiency and accuracy of the screening process, the number of adolescents who succumb to unwanted incidents related to failure to seek appropriate treatment for their mental disorders will reduce, hence cutting the number of readmissions and associated costs. The enhanced screening methodology has the potential to raise insurers’ payment for preventative and quality care services. Since the proposed program will also decrease the number of appeals to specialists or emergency attendants and increase the clinic’s income by serving more patients at a lower cost and in less time, the program will enhance organizational effectiveness. Gradually, such expenses and improved payback will cover the costs of staff training, which would contribute to the long-term financial viability of the program.

ORDER A HUMAN-WRITTEN, PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

3. How would implementing this project affect the organization’s competitiveness in the marketplace (e.g., what new opportunities could arise from the implementation and sustainability of the project)?

The specified project would improve the organization’s competitive advantage in the marketplace by promoting it as a leading provider of mental health care to adolescents. Proprietary and accurate screening services integrating available research evidence would appeal to various families seeking proper mental health care in primary clinics, hence enhancing friendliness and customer retention. The clinic would offer great preventive care for the patients, thus increasing the rate of recovery and reducing cases of the complications that the general clinic handles. This could open possibilities for cooperation with schools, community agencies, and healthcare insurers and access to new sources of financing. It could also get more referrals from other healthcare practitioners, set itself apart from competitors, and show an effort to solve the mental health epidemic by establishing a stronger market position and guaranteeing its viability in the long run.

4. What challenges would the organization face if they did not support this project (e.g., loss of clients, disadvantage in the market, etc.)?

If the organization does not receive support for this nurse-led educational program for adolescent depression screening, it could face several challenges, including a loss of clients seeking comprehensive mental health care. With the increased development of mental health consciousness, parents and caretakers tend to focus on providers who take a comprehensive and preventive approach to teenagers. Lack of this initiative may put the clinic in a disadvantageous position against competitors who put such programs into practice, thus deteriorating patient satisfaction. In addition, a lack of proper depression assessment can lead to missed diagnoses, which affect patients’ outcomes, cause more hospitalizations, and increase the cost of care (Colizzi et al., 2020). This could potentially harm the organization’s reputation, create a niche in the market, and lose potentially lucrative partnerships and reimbursement incentives and growth.

5. Include the studies identified as your evidence base (at least five articles) to support the argument that your proposed project is effective.

Various findings from different research have upheld the nurse-led educational program to promote adolescent depression screening in primary care. According to Castillo (2020), the screening for mental health conditions at an early age with the aid of basic rating instruments such as the PHQ-9 led to early detection and overall enhanced long-term prognosis in adolescents with severe mental health risk indicators. The study acknowledges that community resources and training can enhance adolescent psychological health, promoting better outcomes. Lustig et al. (2022) showed that training the staff in school-based adolescent mental health screening was an efficient intervention for the early identification of children and adolescents with mental health problems, risky behaviors, and related complications. Siniscalchi et al. (2020) also observed that while providing education increased the confidence and competence of healthcare professionals in performing mental health assessments by 25%, it directly enhanced mental health screening across primary care services. In another systematic review, Habtamu et al. (2023) report that enhancing educational efforts for health professionals improves patient outcomes, including better adherence to depression guidelines. Beames et al. (2021) also noted that incorporating staff education and preventive measures for at-risk groups into the prevention of early-onset depressive disorder resulted in a 20% decrease in depressive disorders and prevented complications resulting from missed or delayed diagnosis. In addition, Lange et al. (2022) noted that healthcare practitioners who are involved in educational programs more often were characterized by a more active perspective toward preventive interventions and lesser stigmatization of childhood mental disorders, resulting in more timely diagnoses of children and adolescents’ mental disorders. Collectively, these results demonstrate that staff education for depression screening would improve the identification and treatment of adolescent depression within primary care and result in better patient outcomes.

6. Include the ROI in table format.

References

Beames, J. R., Kikas, K., & Werner-Seidler, A. (2021). Prevention and early intervention of depression in young people: An integrated narrative review of affective awareness and Ecological Momentary Assessment. BMC Psychology, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00614-6

Castillo, E. G. (2020). Community interventions to promote mental health and social equity. Current Psychiatry Reports, 21(5), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-019-1017-0

Colizzi, M., Lasalvia, A., & Ruggeri, M. (2020). Prevention and early intervention in youth mental health: Is it time for a multidisciplinary and trans-diagnostic model for care? International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 14(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-020-00356-9

Habtamu, K., Birhane, R., Demissie, M., & Fekadu, A. (2023). Interventions to improve the detection of depression in primary healthcare: Systematic review. Systematic Reviews, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02177-6

Lange, S., Gossmann, E., Hofmann, S., & Fegert, J. M. (2022). Condemn or treat? The influence of adults’ stigmatizing attitudes on mental health service use for children. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(23), 15951. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315951

Le, L. K.-D., Esturas, A. C., Mihalopoulos, C., Chiotelis, O., Bucholc, J., Chatterton, M. L., & Engel, L. (2021). Cost-effectiveness evidence of mental health prevention and promotion interventions: A systematic review of economic evaluations. PLOS Medicine, 18(5), e1003606. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003606

Lustig, S., Kaess, M., Schnyder, N., Michel, C., Brunner, R., Tubiana, A., Kahn, J.-P., Sarchiapone, M., Hoven, C. W., Barzilay, S., Apter, A., Balazs, J., Bobes, J., Saiz, P. A., Cozman, D., Cotter, P., Kereszteny, A., Podlogar, T., Postuvan, V., & Värnik, A. (2022). The impact of school-based screening on service use in adolescents at risk for mental health problems and risk-behavior. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-022-01990-z

Singh, V., Kumar, A., & Gupta, S. (2022). Mental health prevention and promotion—A narrative review. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13(13). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.898009

Siniscalchi, K. A., Broome, M. E., Fish, J., Ventimiglia, J., Thompson, J., Roy, P., Pipes, R., & Trivedi, M. (2020). Depression screening and measurement-based care in primary care. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 11(11), 215013272093126. https://doi.org/10.1177/2150132720931261