California's minimum nurse staffing legislation: results from a natural experiment.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To determine whether, following implementation of California's minimum nurse staffing legislation, changes in acuity-adjusted nurse staffing and quality of care in California hospitals outpaced similar changes in hospitals in comparison states without such regulations.

Data sources/study setting

Data from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey of Hospitals, the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, the Hospital Cost Report Information System, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Health Care Cost and Utilization Project's State Inpatient Databases from 2000 to 2006.

Study design

We grouped hospitals into quartiles based on their preregulation staffing levels and used a difference-in-difference approach to com

SUBMITTER: Mark BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3626342 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature