title: Refining a patient-acuity system over four years.
abstract: Four years ago St. Joseph Hospital, Albuquerque, developed a patient acuity system to be used in staffing and budgeting for the hospital's nursing service. Since then the service has continuously maintained and refined the system; and nursing management thinks the system has raised staff morale, clarified budgeting and saved money within the service, and helped maintain consistently high-quality patient care.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease / Q000145:classification; D002017:Budgets; D006745:Hospital Bed Capacity, 300 to 499; D006801:Humans; D009013:Morale; D009516:New Mexico; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000145:classification*; D009738:Nursing Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010347:Patient Care Planning / Q000379:methods*; D010559:Personnel Management; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D000078329:Workforce