Predicting professional resource input in home care: the ONI survey

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Services Research
• Community Health

Background:

• Accurate resource allocation is crucial in the home care sector.
• Predictive tools are needed to optimize service delivery and manage costs.
• The On-going Needs Identification (ONI) survey is a potential instrument for assessing patient needs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the On-going Needs Identification (ONI) survey's utility in forecasting resource requirements within the home care setting.
• To determine if ONI survey indicators can predict professional service time.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from an urban community-based services provider.
• Analyzed indicators from the ONI survey to assess their predictive power for professional service time.
• Examined the relationship between ONI variables and nursing/allied health service hours.

Main Results:

• Several ONI indicators significantly correlated with professional service time, explaining 30% of nursing time variance and 40% of allied health time variance.
• Functional profile and gender were identified as factors influencing nursing time.
• An inverse relationship was observed between allied health and nursing service time; the overall needs priority rating (OPR) score showed limited predictive efficacy.

Conclusions:

• ONI survey variables demonstrate differential impacts on nursing and allied health service hours.
• Profession-specific variables are essential for effective resource planning in community-based home care.
• The ONI survey holds potential as a cost-prediction tool integrated into clinical workflows, given that labor constitutes the primary cost in home-based services.