Productivity in Nursing

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Productivity Sakinah Jalil Ohio University Productivity Productivity is a measurement of the output produced using a quantity of inputs (Huber, 2010, p. 701, para. 2). As a result of the national healthcare mandate, hospitals and other healthcare organizations are becoming more focused on increasing labor productivity, managing resources, and decreasing costs, whilst, trying to enhance the quality of care. According to Letvak and Buck (2008), “factors associated with decreased work productivity were age, total years worked as a RN, quality of care provided, job stress score, having had a job injury, and having a health problem” (p. 159, para. 1). The purpose of this paper is to discuss why high productivity is essential in healthcare organizations, describe areas to increase employee productivity, calculate productivity, and to describe two models of productivity. Why is Productivity Important in Healthcare Organizations? The ability to reduce labor costs by even a small amount is crucial to increasing profit and decreasing losses. According to Heffler et al (2003), the National Health Expenditures (NHE) measures spending related to healthcare by types of services delivered in the United States (as cited by Huber, 2010, p. 702, para. 3). NHE is expected to increase to $4.1 trillion in 2016 from $1 trillion in 1998. Experts expect out of pocket expenses to consumers to increase in an effort for employers and insurance companies to get employees and patients to contribute to the rising costs of healthcare (Huber, 2010, p. 703). Since nurses are the largest health care profession, these predictions place emphasis on nurses to be economical in their practice and ensure that supplies are used efficiently and not wasted. Nurse managers are also responsible to construct a plan to provide patient care at the lowest cost possible, but still ensure high quality

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