Financial challenges and complexity in the management of an intensive care/coronary care unit: a case study

This case study demonstrated the difficulties faced by health care managers in controlling costs and dealing with complexity in the current health care and hospital environment. The case describes actions taken to reduce staffing expenditures in an intensive care unit through a rearrangement of nursing duties and the introduction of a different level of nursing staff to take over some of the nursing duties previously carried out by registered nurses. Concluded by pointing to the ongoing nature of the cost problem as nursing professionals are caught in the squeeze between providing the service they are trained for, and their need for appropriate compensation under conditions of increasing work pressure. [Publication Abstract]