Hospital-Acquired Infections Tied To Nurse Staffing Ratios

When researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigated an outbreak of central venous catheter-associated bloodstream infections (CVC-BSI) at a Veterans Administration Hospital, they found that the high rate of infection corresponded to an increase in the number of patients per nurse. Their study, published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, said that "a high patient-to-nurse ratio [is] and independent risk factor for CVC-BSI occurring in the ICU."

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