Advanced practice nurse case managers improve efforts by US hospitals to address patient social needs

US hospitals are focussing more than ever on meeting important patient social needs. Patients often make multiple trips to hospitals related to nonmedical issues that could likely be averted through the increased integration of case management strategies. Although the percentage of hospitals using advanced practice nurses (APNs) in this role is still relatively low, we explore the idea that employing APN case managers improves hospitals' abilities to alleviate hospital overusage.

The study used a cross-sectional design.

We used the 2021 American Hospital Association data set, which includes 5855 hospitals, of which 4315 were general medical hospitals.

Using descriptive statistics and Poisson regression, we discovered that employing APN case managers in US acute care hospitals is associated with an increased likelihood that hospitals will implement strategies addressing patient social needs.

When hospitals screen patients for social needs and formulate and implement internal and external strategies designed to meet patient social needs, many stakeholders stand to benefit. Should more hospitals observe such benefits when utilizing an APN case manager model, it will likely proliferate, and demand for APNs could accelerate further.

Following the reduction in unnecessary patient visits and readmissions, hospitals' scarce resources are freed up to offer timely care to patients that are truly medically in need. Furthermore, financial performance improves under this scenario. APNs play a critical role in enabling hospitals to realize such benefits.

No patient or public contribution. We used archival data in this study.