Heart failure is a global epidemic and is the number one acute hospital discharge diagnosis for older adults in the US. Little is known about the specific nursing interventions most frequently used for hospitalized older adults with heart failure or about the cost associated with those interventions. This retrospective, exploratory, descriptive study uses data from electronic data sources including a Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) database. It describes nursing intervention cost per visit for older heart failure patients from 1435 hospital visits of 1075 patients from a Midwestern quaternary hospital between 1998 and 2002. From the analysis that included general estimating equations (GEE) for repeated hospital visits, eleven (11) NIC’s were found to be statistically significantly associated with cost per visit after controlling for patient characteristics, clinical conditions including co-morbidity and severity of illness, pharmacy treatments, medical procedures and nursing unit characteristics such as case mix, staffing and number of transfer units. Contribution to median cost per visit was calculated for each NIC. Using the final cost model with standard general linear model analysis and first visits only, nursing interventions reflected a proxy for cost of hospital services, accounting for 86% of the variance in per visit hospital cost.
Session #1223 - Graduate Student Poster Session
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)