Number of studies have shown that in hospitals, Patient Safety largely depends on RN staffing ratios. When short staffed, RNs skip their lunches, breaks, and do everything they can to ensure the safety of their Patients. Even then, insufficient staffing poses serious risks to patient’s well-being and recovery from illness.
- Higher nurse workloads are associated with more patient deaths, complications, and medical errors — Agency of Health Research and Quality, AHRQ Healthcare Innovations Exchange, Sept. 26, 2012.
- Adding just one full-time RN on staff per day resulted in 9 percent fewer hospital-related deaths in intensive care units, 16 percent fewer in surgical patients, and 6 percent fewer in medical patients — Healthcare Risk Management, February 2008
- Each additional patient assigned to an RN is associated with a 53 percent increase in respiratory failure, 7 percent increase in the risk of hospital-acquired pneumonia, and 17 percent risk in medical complications — AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043, 2008.
- New Jersey hospitals would have 14 percent fewer patient deaths and Pennsylvania 11 percent fewer deaths if they matched California’s 1:5 nurse-to-patient ratios in surgical units — Health Services Research Journal, August 2010.
- A study of 1,300 Texas patients undergoing surgery for bladder cancer documented a reduction in patient mortality rates of more than 50 percent in hospitals with better RN-to-patient ratios — Cancer, Journal of the American Cancer Society, September 2005.
- If all hospitals increased RN staffing to match the best-staffed hospitals, more than 6,700 in-hospital patient deaths, and 60,000 adverse outcomes could be avoided — Health Affairs, January/February 2006.
NOTE: The Total Performance Scores are calculated and published by Federal Government. You can use the tool below to find this score for every hospital that accepts Medicare/Medicaid.
