Getting the right staffing mix reduces hospital deaths, finds study (Every extra doctor or nurse patient causes 4% - 7% death risk increase, each)

Medical Xpress / University of Southampton / BMJ Open ^ | June 8, 2023 | Bruna Rubbo et al

[ConservativeMind]

A study has found that health managers should consider the levels of a range of staff, beyond just doctors and nurses, when assessing patient safety.

Research shows hospitals with higher levels of allied healthcare professional (AHP) staff, such as physiotherapists, radiographers, dieticians and occupational therapists, report significantly lower mortality rates.

The findings showed that for hospitals where doctors and allied health professionals had to cover fewer beds, there were significantly lower mortality rates. However, for hospitals where there were more healthcare assistants and assistants to allied health professionals in the staffing mix, there were higher mortality rates.

The study also showed that for each additional bed a doctor was responsible for, the patient risk of death increased by 4 percent. This figure was the same for each additional bed that was added to an allied health professionals' workload.

However, for each additional bed a registered nurse had to cope with, the patient risk of death increased by 7 percent. This figure for nurses was not proven statistically significant in this study, but along with evidence from previous research, it does suggest that higher levels of registered nurses per bed are associated with lower mortality.

Dr. Chiara Dall'Ora adds, "While this is the first study to shine a light on the importance of multi-disciplinary staffing, we hope that it will initiate dialogue on ensuring there are safe staffing levels for all the different groups of staff alike, at policy and workforce planning level."

[gas_dr]

Oh…bullsh*t. Love the liberal sources you use. And yes on this tucker is a nutjob

[Bayard]

Title is gore, btw. t is a confusing way to word how more patients to doctors means they die more.

[livius]

No, the article says that more real doctors and nurses decrease the death risk, but more “allied health professionals” increase it.

I was in the hospital a few months ago and the actual nurses and doctors were fine, but all sorts of other people...some “therapists,” some LPNs who seem to have more duties now, etc...came floating into the room and some of them couldn’t even draw blood correctly.

There’s a shortage of doctors and nurses, so they fill them in with these poorly trained “allied health professionals” who should have stuck with changing the bed linen.

One of the reasons there’s a shortage of doctors and nurses is that the government refers to them all as “health professionals.” A doctor I know said, “I’m a doctor. I didn’t study all those years, pass all those tests, and work like a dog to be called a ‘health care professional.’”

Partially it’s the insurance companies, but a lot of it is the federal government.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

My husband had to be in the hospital overnight.

They had some sort of staffing problem and were not able to provide the level of care he needed. I stayed overnight and was able to fill in the gaps. This was not skilled care but basic care.

If your loved one has to be in the hospital then stay with them.

[Seaplaner]

I agree, the conclusion is likely unsupported.

In these days of Obamacare and socialized medicine, there exists motive to slide headlines such as...Every extra doctor or nurse patient causes 4% - 7% death risk increase, each by us as some sort of undisputed truth.

"Studies" can be manipulated, and careful selection of "studies" can yield whatever one wants, however false.

I'm more than suspicious.

[Brilliant]

They’ve actually been telling us we have too many doctors since the 60s. The policy makers have a strange theory that if you increase supply, that increases the cost of healthcare, so they’ve been working overtime to prevent capital investment and to reduce the number of doctors and nurses. You can see where it’s gotten us.