The effects of nursing and physician services: some preliminary results

This paper examines the relationship between the future staff cost of nursing home patient care and the type and level of nursing and medical services these patients receive. Nursing times are grouped into eight categories based on a principal components analysis. We then investigate the effect of the level and type of nursing care and of physicians' services given in an earlier period on the staff cost of nursing home care in a later period. Psychosocial nursing care (emotional support, education) and number of physicians' visits given in the earlier period were found to be negatively associated with costs in a later period. The most powerful predictor of future costs were actual costs in the earlier period. These results suggest that more investment in psychosocial nursing effort and physicians' services may yield modest cost savings in future nursing home patient care.