Providing Safe Quality Care on a Budget

Providing Safe Quality Care on a Budget               

Conversations about quality care delivery improvement often include the areas of patient-centered care as well as controlling costs. Discuss how it is possible to do both in the following scenario (relate it to your area of practice).

A rural community hospital is the only ED and urgent care provider in a 90-square mile area, which also contains a small remote campus of a state university offering BSN and primary care advanced practice MSN programs. ED clinicals for local students of those programs take place at a large hospital system 40 miles away from the campus, due to lack of preceptor availability in the local hospital’s ED. The ED is staffed by local physicians who are assigned ED hours, and no more than three BSN-prepared RNs at any given time. About half of the physicians are specialists who do not feel competent providing ED services outside of their specialty areas.

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 Describe how higher quality care could be delivered in a more cost-effective manner that would take advantage of potentially available providers and care delivery systems. Your knowledge of health policy should inform a creative solution. Note that there a numerous possible solutions to this situation.

Include at least 2 citations with references.