A public health nursing team of representatives from urban public health nursing sites planned and implemented a cost effective model for centralized coordination and distribution of public health nursing referrals to multiple public health nursing sites. This model incorporated a unique PHN referral distribution process. The initial model was based on past PHN workload history. In addition, it incorporated a process for ongoing changes in PHN referral distribution based on current community needs and PHN workload expansion and contraction at different PHN sites. By establishing a public health nursing referral coordinator, this model reduced the cost of receiving and distributing requests for public health nursing services by more than $200,000. In addition, the model increased public health nursing service hours by 200 hours per week, resulting in an important increase in public health nursing revenue generation. This presentation will discuss the process used to implement this model and will provide information on how interested public health nursing agencies can replicate this model.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation, the learner will be able to: 1) describe a cost-saving centralized referral processing system for incoming public health nursing referrals; and 2) articulate a step by step plan for implementing a centralized process for receiving and distributing public health nursing referrals.
Keywords: Public Health Nursing, Communication
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: San Francisco Department of Public Health
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.