Nurse case management: impact on costs and outcomes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the cost of community-based Nurse Case Management (NCM) services and changes in three client outcomes. A cost-evaluation framework was used in this secondary analysis of data collected for an earlier study by Papenhausen ( 1995). Nurse Case Manager salaries and benefits were used to operationalize two cost variables: cost of service and cost per unit of change in client outcomes. The cost of NCM service for the 71 study clients during a three-month periods was $44.31 per client per visit. The mean per client cost of service was used to explore the cost per unit of change in the three outcome variables, all of which decreased. The costs per unit of change were: $5.10 for Severity of Illness, $155.99 for Physical Disability, and $126.14 for Symptom Distress. This is one of few descriptions of monetary value of community-based NCM service.