Mary A. Blegen

Nurse staffing and patient outcomes.

BACKGROUND Nursing studies have shown that nursing care delivery changes affect staff and organizational outcomes, but the effects on client outcomes have not been studied sufficiently. OBJECTIVE To describe, at the level of the nursing care unit, the relationships among total hours of nursing care, registered nurse (RN) skill mix, and adverse patient outcomes. METHODS The adverse outcomes included unit rates of medication errors, patient falls, skin breakdown, patient and family complaints, infections, and deaths. The correlations among staffing variables and outcome variables were determined, and multivariate analyses, controlling for patient acuity, were completed. RESULTS Units with higher average patient acuity had lower rates of medication errors and patient falls but higher rates of the other adverse outcomes. With average patient acuity on the unit controlled, the proportion of hours of care delivered by RNs was inversely related to the unit rates of medication errors, decubiti, and patient complaints. Total hours of care from all nursing personnel were associated directly with the rates of decubiti, complaints, and mortality. An unexpected finding was that the relationship between RN proportion of care was curvilinear; as the RN proportion increased, rates of adverse outcomes decreased up to 87.5%. Above that level, as RN proportion increased, the adverse outcome rates also increased. CONCLUSIONS The higher the RN skill mix, the lower the incidence of adverse occurrences on inpatient care units.

Baccalaureate education in nursing and patient outcomes.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of registered nurse (RN) education by determining whether nurse-sensitive patient outcomes were better in hospitals with a higher proportion of RNs with baccalaureate degrees. BACKGROUND: The Future of Nursing report recommends increasing the percentage of RNs with baccalaureate degrees from 50% to 80% by 2020. Research has linked RN education levels to hospital mortality rates but not with other nurse-sensitive outcomes. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study that, with the use of data from 21 University HealthSystem Consortium hospitals, analyzed the association between RN education and patient outcomes (risk-adjusted patient safety and quality of care indicators), controlling for nurse staffing and hospital characteristics. RESULTS: Hospitals with a higher percentage of RNs with baccalaureate or higher degrees had lower congestive heart failure mortality, decubitus ulcers, failure to rescue, and postoperative deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism and shorter length of stay. CONCLUSION: The recommendation of the Future of Nursing report to increase RN education levels is supported by these findings.

Nurse staffing effects on patient outcomes: safety-net and non-safety-net hospitals.

BackgroundNurse staffing has been linked to hospital patient outcomes; however, previous results were inconsistent because of variations in measures of staffing and were only rarely specific to types of patient care units. ObjectiveTo determine the relationship between nurse staffing in general and intensive care units and patient outcomes and determine whether safety net status affects this relationship. Research DesignA cross-sectional design used data from hospitals belonging to the University HealthSystem Consortium. SubjectsData were available for approximately 1.1 million adult patient discharges and staffing for 872 patient care units from 54 hospitals. MeasuresTotal hours of nursing care [Registered Nurses (RNs), Licensed Practical Nurses, and assistants] determined per inpatient day (TotHPD) and RN skill mix were the measures of staffing; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality risk-adjusted safety and quality indicators were the outcome measures. ResultsTotHPD in general units was associated with lower rates of congestive heart failure mortality (P<0.05), failure to rescue (P<0.10), infections (P<0.01), and prolonged length of stay (P<0.01). RN skill mix in general units was associated with reduced failure to rescue (P<0.01) and infections (P<0.05). TotHPD in intensive care units was associated with fewer infections (P<0.05) and decubitus ulcers (P<0.10). RN skill mix was associated with fewer cases of sepsis (P<0.01) and failure to rescue (P<0.05). Safety-net status was associated with higher rates of congestive heart failure mortality, decubitus ulcers, and failure to rescue. ConclusionsHigher nurse staffing protected patients from poor outcomes; however, hospital safety-net status introduced complexities in this relationship.

Understanding why medication administration errors may not be reported.

Because the identification and reporting of medication administration errors (MAE) is a nonautomated and voluntary process, it is important to understand potential barriers to MAE reporting. This paper describes and analyzes a survey instrument designed to assist in evaluating the relative importance of 15 different potential MAE-reporting barriers. Based on the responses of over 1300 nurses and a confirmatory LISREL analysis, the 15 potential barriers are combined into 4 subscales: Disagreement Over Error, Reporting Effort, Fear, and Administrative Response. The psychometric properties of this instrument and descriptive profiles are presented. Specific suggestions for enhancing MAE reporting are discussed.

Patient and Staff Safety: Voluntary Reporting

Central to efforts to assure the quality of patient care in hospitals is having accurate data about quality and patient problems. The purpose was to describe the reporting rates of medication administration errors (MAE), patient falls, and occupational injuries. A questionnaire was distributed to staff nurses (N = 1105 respondents) in a national sample of 25 hospitals. This addressed voluntary reporting, work environment factors, and reasons for not reporting occurrences. More than 80t indicated that all MAEs should be reported, but only 36% indicated that near misses should be reported. Perceived levels of actual reporting were: 47% of MAEs, 77% of patient falls, 48% of needlesticks, 22% of other exposures to body fluids, and 17% of back injuries. Administrative response to reports, personal fears, and unit quality management were related to reporting. Patient and staff safety occurrences are underreported. Strong quality management processes and positive responses to reports of occurrences may increase reporting and enhance safety.

AHRQ'S Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: Psychometric Analyses

Objective: This project analyzed the psychometric properties of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) including factor structure, interitem reliability and intraclass correlations, usefulness for assessment, predictive validity, and sensitivity. Methods: The survey was administered to 454 health care staff in 3 hospitals before and after a series of multidisciplinary interventions designed to improve safety culture. Respondents (before, 434; after, 368) included nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and other hospital staff members. Results: Factor analysis partially confirmed the validity of the HSOPSC subscales. Interitem consistency reliability was above 0.7 for 5 subscales; the staffing subscale had the lowest reliability coefficients. The intraclass correlation coefficients, agreement among the members of each unit, were within recommended ranges. The pattern of high and low scores across the subscales of the HSOPSC in the study hospitals were similar to the sample of Pacific region hospitals reported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and corresponded to the proportion of items in each subscale that are worded negatively (reverse scored). Most of the unit and hospital dimensions were correlated with the Safety Grade outcome measure in the tool. Conclusion: Overall, the tool was shown to have moderate-to-strong validity and reliability, with the exception of the staffing subscale. The usefulness in assessing areas of strength and weakness for hospitals or units among the culture subscales is questionable. The culture subscales were shown to correlate with the perceived outcomes, but further study is needed to determine true predictive validity.

Adverse Patient Occurrences as a Measure of Nursing Care Quality

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to describe relationships among adverse patient occurrences aggregated at the unit level of measurement. Relationships between adverse occurrences and a patient acuity measure were also described. BACKGROUND Adverse patient occurrence data have been traditionally a major indicator of quality care in hospitals; however, few studies have examined relationships among these indicators or the usefulness of these indicators for assessing the quality of nursing care. METHODS A correlational design was used to examine and describe patterns of relationships among in-patient units in a tertiary care hospital. The results demonstrated positive correlations between medication error rates and patient falls; these adverse occurrences correlated negatively with pressure ulcers, infections, patient complaints, and death. Pressure ulcers, infections, patient complaints and death intercorrelated positively and also related positively to patient acuity levels. RESULTS An examination of these same rates for a subset of units with similar patient acuity levels revealed that most of the interrelationships among the entire set of adverse occurrence indicators were positive. When patient acuity was taken into account, these adverse outcomes appeared to indicate some common underlying characteristic of the units, such as quality of nursing care. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests a relationship between the adverse occurrences that were correlated (pressure ulcers, patient complaints, infection, and death) and the severity of patient illness. Medication error rates and patient fall rates were not correlated with patient acuity and are more likely to indicate quality of nursing care across all types of units.

Outcomes of hospital-based managed care: A multivariate analysis of cost and quality**

Objective To determine the effects a hospital-based managed care intervention has on the cost and quality of care. Methods The intervention consisted of a CareMap and a nurse case manager. The CareMap contained both a critical path and a set of expected patient outcomes. The study population comprised all women who delivered by cesarean during the 18 months of the study and who were cared for in the maternity unit at a tertiary-level university hospital. The effects of the intervention were determined by comparing the after group with the before group in regard to length of stay and costs of care post-cesarean delivery, patient ratings of quality of care, and the physical recovery of the patients by discharge and 1 month later. Results After the implementation of hospital-based managed care, the average length of stay decreased 13.5% (0.7 days) and the average costs decreased 13.1% (

Empowering Frontline Nurses: A Structured Intervention Enables Nurses to Improve Medication Administration Accuracy

518). These decreases were statistically significant and remained so after controlling for co-morbid and complicating conditions. Patients perception of the quality of care increased from 4.26 to 4.41 on a 1–5 scale, a statistically significant increase. In particular, patients believed that they had an increased level of participation in their care. The physical recovery scores obtained at discharge did not change. Conclusion Hospital-based managed care can reduce resource use, length of stay, and cost associated with hospital care while maintaining or improving the quality of care. Whether these effects are reproducible and generalizable to other conditions should be addressed in future studies; the duration of these effects should also be examined.

A Multidisciplinary Teamwork Training Program: The Triad for Optimal Patient Safety (TOPS) Experience

BACKGROUND Seven hospitals from the San Francisco Bay Area participated in an 18-month-long Integrated Nurse Leadership Program, which was designed to improve the reliability of medication administration by developing and deploying nurse leadership and process improvement skills on one medical/surgical inpatient unit. METHODS Each hospital formed a nurse-led project team that worked on six safety processes to improve the accuracy of medication administration: Compare medication to the medication administration record, keep medication labeled from preparation to administration, check two forms of patient identification, explain drug to patient (if applicable), chart immediately after administration, and protect process from distractions and interruptions. RESULTS For the six hospitals included in the analysis, the accuracy of medication administration (as measured by the percent of correct doses administered) improved from 85% in the baseline period to 92% six months after the intervention and 96% 18 months after the intervention. The sum of the six safety processes completed also improved significantly, from 4.8 on a 0-6 scale at baseline to 5.6 at 6 months to 5.75 at 18 months. DISCUSSION This study suggests that frontline nurses and other hospital-based staff, if given the training, resources, and authority, are well positioned to improve patient care and safety processes on hospital patient units. Frontline clinicians have the unique opportunity to see what is and is not working in the direct provision of patient care. To address the sustainability of the programs changes after the official project ended, each team was required to develop a sustainability plan entailing monitoring of progress, actions to ensure the improvements are built into the organizational infrastructure, and staffs interaction with leaders to ensure that the work could continue.