Measuring the financial benefits of a CAM program isn’t easy, but many hospitals are seeing positive trends in patient satisfaction as well as staff recruitment and retention.
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| Sita Ananth |
The scene is a familiar one in many hospital executive suites. The complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) champion is broaching the subject of building or expanding the CAM program, and the first words out of the lips of a hospital administrator or financial officer are “Show me the data.”
“What will be the return on our investment in your CAM initiatives?” is a question they often ask of the program leader. Often, this is a tough question to answer, given that very little research and outcomes data have been gathered on an integrative approach to patient care. While there are ample data to support the efficacy of specific modalities, there is a dearth of research on the business case for offering these services.
There are, however, several ways managers are evaluating their return on investment (ROI). “Offering CAM therapies is in keeping with our patient-centered and holistic care model,” says Bill Powanda, vice president of support for Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn. “We have been able to hold our own and differentiate ourselves from seven much larger hospitals all within 15 miles of us.” In addition to market differentiation, there seem to be two key indicators by which many hospitals are measuring the success of their programs: patient satisfaction, and staff recruitment and retention.
Patient satisfaction. A common theme among most of the hospital executives with whom I have spoken, patient satisfaction is the primary reason given by hospital administrators who choose to offer these programs (these and other results will be reported in the upcoming Health Forum 2007 CAM Survey of Hospitals). Clearly responding to the needs of patients and then ensuring they are satisfied is prime. At Woodwinds Health Campus (part of the HealthEast Care System in Minnesota), the 2008 Picker patient satisfaction score is at 91 percent, which they attribute to the patient-centered and holistic care model they have established that revolves around the needs of the patients and families.
Staff recruitment and retention. At Mercy Gilbert Medical Center in Gilbert, Ariz. (a Catholic Healthcare West hospital), employees are chosen for their commitment to creating a compassionate healing environment for both patients and staff, including the option of CAM services. Employees are supported by training and policies that treat employees with dignity and respect and that promote self-care. This approach has resulted in a nursing turnover rate of 11 percent that is half the state’s average; and employee satisfaction rate of 87 percent, compared with the 80 percent goal set by the system; and a waitlist for RN openings.
With the average cost of losing and replacing one full-time RN at an estimated $50,000, hospitals are highly motivated to reduce their turnover rates. At Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, N.J., an integrative healing arts training program for nurses in conjunction with the services of their Center for Knowledge Advancement has helped reduce nursing turnover from 14 percent in 2002 to 10 percent in 2006, for an estimated savings of $3.4 million.
While most hospital administrators tell us that creating a healing environment for their patients is simply “the right thing to do,” these same leaders have an opportunity, and some would argue an obligation, to participate in research that quantifies the business, social and clinical advantages of bringing “healing” back into the health care equation.
Sita Ananth, M.H.A., is director of knowledge services, optimal healing environments, for the Samueli Institute, a nonprofit medical research organization in Alexandria, Va. She is also a regular contributor to H&HN OnLine.
The Samueli Institute is targeting the health services research of its Optimal Healing Environments Program toward evaluating the ROI for all aspects of a healing environment, including integrative medicine initiatives, and toward producing the type of data that health care decision-makers have been seeking.
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