Resource Allocation and Utilization (Nursing)

00:01 Welcome back, everyone.

00:02 Healthcare professionals and organizations are charged with being good stewards of the resources.

00:07 Now in order to use them most efficiently, we must understand effective resource allocation and utilization.

00:14 Resource allocation is the distribution of resources, usually financial, among competing groups of people or programs.

00:21 Now it does involve three levels.

00:23 Level 1: allocating resources to healthcare versus other social needs.

00:28 Level 2: allocating resources within the healthcare sector.

00:33 And finally, level 3: allocating resources among individual patients.

00:39 Now this does involve some decision-making.

00:42 In level 1, community members consider how to distribute the funds among one, two or three of the competing programs.

00:49 Here's an example.

00:50 Should the funding be split into three equal portions or should one program, possibly under funded in the past, get all or most of the money? Now level 2, assuming that healthcare gets a portion of $100,000 the next decision community members face is how best to direct the spending among competing healthcare interest.

01:09 Here are some examples.

01:11 Should most or all of the funds go to hospital care and medical equipment? What about the public education program that promotes healthy lifestyles and behaviors like exercise or immunizations that prevent disease? Next is level 3.

01:25 And it involves distributing the financial resources among individuals.

01:29 Now most communities have policies and guidelines to ensure fairness in this situation.

01:33 Here are some examples.

01:35 Who gets the next available heart for transplant? And who sees the doctor first when there are many people waiting in an emergency room? Why is a resource allocation needed? It's needed because of the rising cost of health care and because of health care rationing.

01:51 So let's talk a little more about the rising cost of health care.

01:54 Continued medical advances have led to more accurate diagnosis and better treatments, but also have increased the cost of health care.

02:01 The aging population is growing.

02:04 Nearly 36 million Americans are age 65 or older and they account for a majority of the healthcare expenditures, and most people are living with chronic disease and disabilities including AIDS.

02:15 Now here are some possible solutions.

02:17 We can increase our efficiency.

02:19 We can distribute resources equitably.

02:22 We can adopt managed care plans.

02:25 Resource utilization is the amount of a good or service consumed or the pattern of use of a good or service within a specified time.

02:33 Now basic resources needed to provide a good or service includes: financial, human resources, technological, or physical.

02:43 Now appropriate resource utilization in health care is everyone's responsibility.

02:48 A nurse, as a major health care provider, is increasingly held accountable for resource use and the costs of patient care.

02:56 Nurses have a key role in determining healthcare resource needs, obtaining those resources, and often participating in the allocation of scarce resources.

03:05 Quality care remains the goal in health care and outcomes focus plans of care have been shown to contain resource utilization and enhance quality.

03:15 Resource utilization as a dynamic process.

03:17 Nurses and other health care providers must be able to identify the cost of care or the cost of an illness, identify necessary resources, and manage resource utilization in health care.

03:30 So, remember, nurse leaders have resource allocation and utilization responsibility for financial management of departments, organizations, and systems of care, including personnel, equipment and supplies, technology, and physical design.

03:44 So in thinking of everything we've covered today, I'd like you to consider this question.

03:48 Describe the three levels of decision-making in regard to resource allocation.

03:59 They are level 1: allocating resources to healthcare versus other social needs.

04:04 Level 2: allocating resources within the healthcare sector.

04:08 And finally, level 3: allocating resources among individual patients.

04:12 I hope you've enjoyed today's video on resource allocation and utilization.

04:17 Thanks so much for watching.