Is Hospital Nurse Staffing Legislation in the Public's Interest?: An Observational Study in New York State.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act under consideration in the New York (NY) state assembly would require hospitals to staff enough nurses to safely care for patients. The impact of regulated minimum patient-to-nurse staffing ratios in acute care hospitals in NY is unknown.

Objectives

To examine variation in patient-to-nurse staffing in NY hospitals and its association with adverse outcomes (ie, mortality and avoidable costs).

Research design

Cross-sectional data on nurse staffing in 116 acute care general hospitals in NY are linked with Medicare claims data.

Subjects

A total of 417,861 Medicare medical and surgical patients.

Measures

Patient-to-nurse staffing is the primary predictor variable. Outcomes include in-hospital mortality, length

SUBMITTER: Lasater KB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8026733 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature