Photo: Morsa Images/Getty Images Replacing registered nurses with non-RN staff is dangerous to patients, according to a new study from the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing published in . To assess how the struggle to recruit and retain hospital nurses affects patients, researchers looked at data on patient outcomes, 30-day mortality rates, 30-day readmissions, length of stay and patient satisfaction at 2,676 general acute care U.S.
hospitals in 2019. After conducting a cross-sectional analysis of three linked datasets from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review patient claims and Hospital Compare’s Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, the researchers said they found the staffing ratio reductions translated to 11,000 deaths and increased avoidable Medicare costs. Most hospitals they studied had more than 70% RNs in their total nursing staff.
However, "we can project from our models that a 50 percentage-point reduction in RNs, from our observed average of 76.5% RNs, would be associated with 38% higher odds of in-hospital mortality, 24% higher odds of 30-day mortality, 6% higher odds of readmission and a 10% increase in the expected length of stay," they said in the . Further, a 10-percentage point reduction in RNs translates to $68.
5 million in avoidable costs paid by Medicare, they said. "Estimates represent only a 10 percentage-point.
