Author
Listed:
- Roberta Pineda
- Elizabeth Heiny
- Patricia Nellis
- Joan Smith
- Jaqueline M McGrath
- Margaux Collins
- Abigail Barker
Abstract
Objective: The aim of this project was to determine revenues and costs over time to assess the sustainability of the Baby Bridge program. Methods: The Baby Bridge program was developed to promote timely, consistent and high quality early therapy services for high-risk infants following neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) discharge. Key features of the Baby Bridge program were defined as: 1) having the therapist establish rapport with the family while in the NICU, 2) scheduling the first home visit within one week of discharge and continuing weekly visits until other services commence, 3) conducting comprehensive assessments to inform targeted interventions by a skilled, single provider, and 4) using a comprehensive therapeutic approach while collaborating with the NICU medical team and community therapy providers. The Baby Bridge program was implemented with infants hospitalized in an urban Level IV NICU from January 2016 to January 2018. The number of infants enrolled increased gradually over the first several months to reach the case-load capacity associated with one full-time therapist by mid-2017. Costs of the therapists delivering Baby Bridge services, travel, and equipment were tracked and compared with claim records of participants. The operational cost of Baby Bridge programming at capacity was estimated based on the completed and anticipated claims and reimbursement of therapy services as a means to inform possible scale-ups of the program. Results: In 2016, the first year of programming, the Baby Bridge program experienced a loss of $26,460, with revenue to the program totaling $11,138 and expenses totaling $37,598. In 2017, the Baby Bridge program experienced a net positive income of $2,969, with revenues to the program totaling $53,989 and expenses totaling $51,020. By Spring 2017, 16 months after initiating Baby Bridge programming, program revenue began to exceed cost. It is projected that cumulative revenue would have exceeded cumulative costs by January 2019, 3 years following implementation. Net annual program income, once scaled up to capacity, would be approximately $16,308. Discussion: There were initial losses during phase-in of Baby Bridge programming associated with operating far below capacity, yet the program achieved sustainability within 16 months of implementation. These costs related to implementation do not consider the potential cost reduction due to mitigated health burden for the community and families, particularly due to earlier receipt of therapy services, which is an important area for further inquiry.
Suggested Citation
Roberta Pineda & Elizabeth Heiny & Patricia Nellis & Joan Smith & Jaqueline M McGrath & Margaux Collins & Abigail Barker, 2020.
"The Baby Bridge program: A sustainable program that can improve therapy service delivery for preterm infants following NICU discharge,"
PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-12, May.
Handle:
RePEc:plo:pone00:0233411
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233411
Download full text from publisher
References listed on IDEAS
- Najman, J. M. & Bor, W. & Morrison, J. & Andersen, M. & Williams, G., 1992.
"Child developmental delay and socio-economic disadvantage in Australia: A longitudinal study,"
Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 829-835, April.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)
Citations
Citations are extracted by the
CitEc Project, subscribe to its
RSS feed for this item.
Cited by:
- So Ra Kang & Haeryun Cho, 2021.
"Research Trends of Follow-Up Care after Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Graduation for Children Born Preterm: A Scoping Review,"
IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-15, March.
- Verena Clemencic-Jones & Suza Trajkovski & Allison Fuller & Karen Mattock & Virginia Stulz, 2024.
"Music Therapy with Preterm Infants and Their Families after Hospital Discharge: An Integrative Review,"
IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(8), pages 1-31, August.
Most related items
These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0233411. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.