Improving Hospital Nurse Staffing Is Associated with Fewer Deaths from Sepsis

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Found at University of PENN Nursing website

Improving Hospital Nurse Staffing Is Associated with Fewer Deaths from Sepsis

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According to a new study published in American Journal of Infection Control, improving nurse staffing as proposed in pending legislation in New York state would likely save lives of sepsis patients and save money by reducing the length of hospital stays.

Researchers at the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, conducting independent research on whether pending nurse staffing legislation in New York state is in the public’s interest, found that the wide variation in patient-to-nurse ratios across hospitals in New York is contributing to avoidable deaths for patients with sepsis, a common, high mortality condition.

New York state is a national leader in sepsis care through legislation known as Rory’s Regulations named after a child that unexpectedly died in a New York hospital from sepsis. The new study finds avoided sepsis deaths associated with better hospital nurse staffing are much greater than adherence to mandated sepsis care bundles.

The new study shows each additional patient added to a nurse’s workload is associated with 12% higher in-hospital mortality from sepsis compared with only a 5% improvement in mortality associated with improved adherence to mandated care bundles.

The study concluded that while Rory’s Regulations and sepsis care bundles helped reduce deaths from sepsis, implementing proposed patient-to-nurse ratios in NY state holds promise for much greater reductions in sepsis deaths.

Lead author Karen Lasater, PhD, RN, an assistant professor and CHOPR researcher said, “Results show that improving nurse staffing in New York hospitals could substantially reduce deaths from sepsis over and above the benefits of mandated care bundles.”...

 

 

Full study : American Journal of Infection Control   10 December 2020

Evaluation of hospital nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and sepsis bundles on patient outcomes

 

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All of the praises and gratitude heaped upon front line staff of late has been great.

Now we need to find ways to keep the pandemic and the heroic efforts  of frontliners in front of the public's eye so that the gratitude can  translate into proper staffing, both now and always.  

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On 1/29/2021 at 3:43 PM, NRSKarenRN said:

Found at University of PENN Nursing website

Improving Hospital Nurse Staffing Is Associated with Fewer Deaths from Sepsis

 

Full study : American Journal of Infection Control   10 December 2020

Evaluation of hospital nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and sepsis bundles on patient outcomes

 

Not only in hospital staffing but in nursing homes or other facilities. These places run short, as a rule, and by the time the patients get to the hospital they already have sepsis or an advanced form of COVID.

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Specializes in Hospice, Geri, Psych and SA,.

What? Better staffing saves lives? Impossible, nurses just sit around playing cards while wearing doctor's stethoscopes. 

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On 2/2/2021 at 6:25 PM, TheMoonisMyLantern said:

What? Better staffing saves lives? Impossible, nurses just sit around playing cards while wearing doctor's stethoscopes. 

They had to do a study to figure this out? Could have saved a lot of time & money by asking a couple of nurses. But what do we know other than how to count cards. 

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

I think the title should have been: Improving Hospital Nurse Staffing Is Associated with Fewer Deaths. period. from sepsis, from falls, from pressure ulcers, from device related infections, from bad cafeteria food, from boredom. ANYTHING is going to improve when nurses have more time to focus on individual patients (when they get up from their card game, that is). The length of stay would go down, the teaching would go up. The survey scores would also probably go up, but they would rather concentrate on the outcomes associate with updating white boards than the patient interaction benefits. 

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Specializes in Dialysis.
On 1/30/2021 at 8:22 PM, Kooky Korky said:

Now we need to find ways to keep the pandemic and the heroic efforts  of frontliners in front of the public's eye so that the gratitude can  translate into proper staffing, both now and always.  

If only...but if they can save a few bucks for admin bonuses, it's going to stay business as usual

Many hospitals are crying how much money covid has made them lose. That generally translates into staffing cuts, not bonus or frivolous do-dad cuts

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