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.
With improved nurse staffing levels, patient risk of hospital-acquired infections and hospital length of stay decrease, resulting in lives saved — Medical Care, Volume 47, Number 1, 2009.
Cutting the number of patients per RN per shift in intensive care units from 3.3 patients to fewer than 1.6 reduces the odds of hospital-acquired sepsis (a severe blood infection that can lead to organ failure and death) — American Journal of Epidemiology, 2007.
Patients hospitalized for heart attacks, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia are more likely to receive high-quality care in hospitals with better RN staffing ratios — Archives of Internal Medicine, December 11/25, 2006
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.
