15.12.13

Group Well-Child Care: An Analysis of Cost.

  • Hiromi Yoshida
  • Ada M. Fenick
  • and Marjorie S. Rosenthal
CLIN PEDIATR 0009922813512418first published on December 10, 2013  doi:10.1177/0009922813512418
Objective.To determine if group well-child visits (WCV) can be cost neutral compared with individual WCV by varying health care providers, group size, and physician salary.MethodWe created 6 economic models to evaluate the costs of WCV: 3 for individual WCV delivered by (1) advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), (2) resident, and (3) attending and 3 for group WCV delivered by (4) APRN with a nurse and social worker; (5) resident with an attending, nurse, and child life specialist; and (6)attending with a nurse. For group WCV, we performed sensitivity analyses on group size and duration of provider participation. Results. We achieved cost-neutrality at 4 families in the APRN group WCV model; at 3, 4, 5, and 6 families in the resident model with 30, 45, 60, and 90 minutes of attending supervision, respectively; and at 4 and 5 families in the low and high attending salary model, respectively. Conclusion. Group WCV can be delivered in a cost-neutral manner by optimizing group size and provider participation.