Nurses Demand Disclosure Of Hospital Staffing Levels

1994 ◽  
Vol 94 (12) ◽  
pp. 61-65
Author(s):  
&NA; &NA;
2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Al-Amin ◽  
Md Nazmul Islam ◽  
Kate Li ◽  
Natalie E Sheils ◽  
John Buresh

Objective: This study aims to investigate the relationship between registered nurses and hospital-based medical specialties staffing levels with inpatient COVID-19 mortality rates. Methods: We rely on data from AHA Annual Survey Database, Area Health Resource File, and UnitedHealth Group Clinical Discovery Database. We use linear regression to analyze the association between hospital staffing levels and bed capacity with inpatient COVID-19 mortality rates from March 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020. Results: Higher staffing levels of registered nurses, hospitalists, and emergency medicine physicians were associated with lower COVID-19 mortality rates. Moreover, a higher number of ICU and skilled nursing beds were associated with better patient outcomes. Hospitals located in urban counties with high infection rates had the worst patient mortality rates. Conclusion: Higher staffing levels are associated with lower inpatient mortality rates for COVID-19 patients. A future assessment is needed to establish benchmarks on the minimum staffing levels for nursing and hospital-based medical specialties during pandemics.


Author(s):  
Pamela J.L. Rae ◽  
Susie Pearce ◽  
P. Jane Greaves ◽  
Chiara Dall'Ora ◽  
Peter Griffiths ◽  
...  

1997 ◽  
Vol 23 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 339-362
Author(s):  
Sarah C. Kellogg

In December 1995, the Eighth Circuit decided Kennedy v. Schafer, holding that a teenage patient who committed suicide while under treatment at a state psychiatric facility had a constitutionally protected liberty interest in a safe and humane environment under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment if her status changed from voluntary to involuntary during the course of her admission. The fifteen year old patient, Kathleen Kennedy, had been identified as a suicide risk, and had been placed on “Protective Suicide Precautions,” which required a designated staff member to keep her in constant eyesight and to interact with her at fifteen to twenty minute intervals. Despite these stringent requirements for supervision and contact, Kathleen was found dead in her room more than two hours after her last contact with a staff member. Her parents brought suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against state and hospital officials, alleging that chronic understaffing and falsification of the records used to determine staffing levels amounted to a pattern of deliberate indifference to patient safety which violated their daughter’s protected liberty interest in a safe and humane environment.


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