Milan, May 12 (beraking latest news Health) – With more nurses operating in hospital wards, care improves and there is a 7% drop in the chances of patient death and re-admission to hospital after a previous hospitalization. The length of hospital stays is also shortened, by 3% for each less patient a nurse has on their workload. And the savings in terms of costs avoided for the hospital is double the cost of recruiting additional personnel and achieving an adequate number of nurses / patients. These are the estimates contained in a maxi study published in ‘The Lancet’ and conducted in Australia on 55 hospitals in Qeensland. The work comes on the eve of International Nurses Day (May 12), and turns the spotlight on the issue of staff shortages and strategies to improve their levels, which remain debated at various latitudes around the world.
Under the lens of researchers, a recent policy launched in the Australian state, aimed at guaranteeing a minimum ratio of one nurse to 4 patients for daily shifts. The observed results – they highlight – are positive. The research considered a pool of over 400,000 patients and 17,000 nurses in 27 hospitals that have implemented health policies aimed at increasing the number of operators and 28 comparison hospitals.
“Our results fill a crucial data gap – observes the lead author, Matthew McHugh of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, in the USA – Opponents of policies” such as that of Queensland, which set a level of reference to be guaranteed in terms of nursing staff, “raise concerns that there is no clear policy assessment. We hope our data will convince on the need for these minimal nurse-patient ratios by clearly demonstrating that quality nursing care is vital to safety and assistance “.
In 2016, 27 public hospitals in Queensland implemented their staffing to reach the minimum ratio of 1 dedicated nurse for every 4 patients during day shifts and one every 7 during night shifts in medical-surgical departments. The study authors analyzed data from 2016 and then 2018, two years after the policy was implemented in these hospitals. And they compared them with the data of other 28 structures that did not undergo personnel changes, remaining fixed at 6 patients per nurse. To evaluate the outcomes, details on discharge, length of hospitalization, deaths 30 days after discharge, readmissions to hospital within 7 days of the patient’s exit were checked. It was then investigated through a survey on the working methods of nurses.
In detail, the results of the analysis show that the possibility of death increased between 2016 and 2018 by 7% in hospitals that did not implement the nursing staff policy and decreased by 11% in those that did. adopted. The chances of second admissions increased by 6% in comparison hospitals over time, but remained the same in hospitals that implemented the policy. Between 2016 and 2018, length of stay decreased by 5% in hospitals that did not implement the policy and by 9% in hospitals that did. Further analysis found that when the nursing workload improved by reducing one patient per nurse, the chance of death and readmissions decreased by 7% and the length of hospital stay decreased by 3%.
The researchers estimated that there would be 145 more deaths, 255 more hospital readmissions and 29,222 additional hospital days in the 27 hospitals that implemented the policy between 2016 and 2018. As for the financial impact, it was estimated at 33 million Australian dollars over two years the cost of recruiting 167 more nurses and decreasing the workload for each operator, while on the other hand it was calculated that the new hospitalizations avoided and the reduction of hospital stays resulted in savings of approximately 69 million in the two years following the implementation of the policy.
“It is short-sighted” therefore to be held back by the expected increase in hiring costs, notes Patsy Yates of the Queensland University of Technology School of Nursing, Australia. “What is observed – he says – is a clear return on investment. We would like to encourage governments to consider these figures”. “Building a robust nursing workforce – Amanda Ullman, University of Queensland, and Patricia Davidson, University of Wollongong, Australia, conclude in a commentary linked to the study – is inextricably linked to patient outcomes and should be central to health care planning. “.