A Financial Case for a Medical-Legal Partnership: Reducing Lengths of Stay for Inpatient Care

Journal Article
Written By NCMLP

Description

A medical-legal partnership at an academic medical center (AMC) in North Carolina measured the detailed cost savings it provided to the AMC through the provision of legal services to its patients. MLP partners identified guardianship-related delays as the primary driver of extended lengths-of-stay at the AMC. When an MLP attorney was able to expedite guardianship proceedings, they reduced a patient’s lengths-of-stay by approximately 20 days. This led to an annual cost savings of $1,237,500 for the AMC based on an average cost of $825 per day for the hospital for 75 patients requiring guardianship services. Cost savings from these reduced lengths-of-stay alone exceeded MLP program costs by over threefold. The findings were published in The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics.

 

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Link to the Journal
 

Authors

  • Barak D Richman

  • Breanna Barrett

  • Riya Mohan

  • Devdutta Sangvai

NCMLP

ncmlp@gwu.edu

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