Open AccessReducing Hospital Expenditures With the COPE (Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment) Program for Parents and Premature Infants
Author(s) -
Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk,
Nancy Fischbeck Feinstein
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
nursing administration quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1550-5103
pISSN - 0363-9568
DOI - 10.1097/01.naq.0000343346.47795.13
Subject(s) - neonatal intensive care unit , anxiety , medicine , intervention (counseling) , low birth weight , depression (economics) , mental health , pediatrics , psychology , nursing , psychiatry , pregnancy , macroeconomics , economics , biology , genetics
More than 500,000 premature infants are born in the United States every year. Preterm birth results in a multitude of negative adverse outcomes for children, including extended stays in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), developmental delays, physical and mental health/behavioral problems, increased medical utilization, and poor academic performance. In addition, parents of preterms experience a higher incidence of depression and anxiety disorders along with altered parent-infant interactions and overprotective parenting, which negatively impact their children. The costs associated with preterm birth are exorbitant. In 2005, it is estimated that preterm birth cost the United States $26.2 billion. The purpose of this study was to perform a cost analysis of the Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment (COPE) program for parents of premature infants, a manualized educational-behavioral intervention program comprising audiotaped information and an activity workbook that is administered to parents in 4 phases, the first phase commencing 2 to 4 days after admission to the NICU. Findings indicated that the COPE program resulted in cost savings of at least $4864 per infant. In addition to improving parent and child outcomes, routine implementation of COPE in NICUs across the United States could save the healthcare system more than $2 billion per year.