Health care management. A tool for the future.

As a result of increasing health care costs in the U.S., the skilled, knowledgeable occupational health nurse can implement a plan to reduce these costs with benefits personnel. Using accepted business principles such as the Deming/Shewart cycle, health data can be obtained from the provider, trends can be analyzed, and strategies can be planned for the population. Health and subsequent costs can be managed through the use of the natural history of disease, the three levels of prevention, occupational health nurses' relationships with people, and their access to confidential data. Short-term strategies should include catastrophic and intermediate case management. These systems ensure results in terms of quality and cost.