Cost -effectiveness In Healthcare:Waste Of Products By Nurses

Cost -effectiveness in healthcare: Waste of products by nurses

Name

Institution

Proposed Solution

The type of valuable hospital supplies that get wasted by nurses include drugs which have recorded to be lost at a higher rate compared to other products. Other products include the materials that are used in hospital wards and other hospital departments.

A Solution that has been identified to help reduce and eliminate wastage of resources include programs that are used recover the products (Nichols, et al., 2011). The recovered products like drugs are then taken to the low-class patients who cannot afford the products hence improving healthcare.

This solution serves to ensure that the individuals in the community who cannot access the healthcare use the products such as the available materials that are wasted during neurosurgery. These unused materials and drugs result in the loss of resources that should be used to reduce the high costs of healthcare in America and other countries.

Short-term Goal

A short term goal for the program is to ensure that waste is reduced in the hospital and that the environment of the hospital is conducive for the patients and the workers (Marshall, 2017. The high rate of wastage in the hospitals has been proven to be a factor that results in pollution of the environment.

Based on this reason, it becomes the short term goal of the healthcare stakeholders to ensure that the wastage of products by nurses has been reduced to reduce pollution and at the same time save the resources of the nation.

Long term Goals

One of the long term goals that are identified by the program is that cost-effectiveness ion healthcare is enhanced. According to the article by Mashall Allen (Marshall, 2017), the estimate for healthcare wastes is estimated to be around seventy hundred and sixty-five dollars annually. The money that is lost through wasted products can be used to implement evidence-based practice in the healthcare sector to ensure that quality services are offered to the community.

The other long term goal is ensuring a healthy community in America regardless of the person’s background. The article mentions that the solution is a program that recovers the wasted materials and drugs and is taken to the less privileged in the community. The less privileged are the minority, and the drugs will ensure that every individual is healthy.

The other long term goal is based on the economy of the nation. Many billions of money are wasted by throwing away hospital products. The money wasted through these products can be used to establish programs that would help in the growth of the economy.

Barriers

However, the achievement of these goals is faced with obstacles that affect healthcare effectiveness. One of the challenges that are identified is the lack of collaboration of the stakeholders in the healthcare organization. Lack of cooperation creates a fragment that results in wastage of the products even the unused products and this result in loss of community resources (Aljabre, 2002). Collaboration ensures that nurses, management and other stakeholders are focused on healthcare cost-effectiveness.

Poor management is also another barrier that has resulted in the loss of resources by throwing away unused healthcare products. The management of a healthcare facility should monitor closely how the products such as drugs and other hospital materials before they are disposed as waste.

Another barrier is the lack of knowledge by the nurses on how to manage the products. According to the article, some drugs are disposed of once the patient dies or is transferred even if they have not expired. The nurses lack the understanding that the drugs can be used by another patient instead of throwing them away (Aljabre, 2002). The nurses, therefore, should be offered with education on how and when to conduct disposal of hospital products to enhance healthcare cost-effectiveness.

References

Aljabre, S. H. (2002). Hospital generated waste: a plan for its proper management. Journal of family & community medicine, 9(2), 61.

Marshall Allen, (December 28, 2017). Want to cut health-care costs? Start with the obscene amount of waste. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/12/28/want-to-cut-health-care-costs-start-with-the-obscene-amount-of-waste/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c6c6ae0b14fa

Nichols, A., Richardson, J., Pahl, S., Jenkin, R., Wallace, G., & Bennallick, M. (2011, November). Sustainable practise and behaviour change in healthcare waste management: a review of the literature. In 1st World Sustainability Forum (pp. 1-30).