The effect of managed care penetration on hospital staffing in Tennessee, 1991--1995.
The author analyzed secondary data from Tennessee hospitals (1991-1995) to determine what effect, if any, managed health care plans had on hospital staffing. The results of the study, which incorporated multiple regression analysis, revealed an increase in the number of administrative hospital employees on average, with additional interesting effects on the skill-mix of nursing staff. The author believes that, overall, the increase in the number of registered nurses, together with the decrease in the number of licensed practical nurses, does not confirm notions that managed care would lead to a decrease in hospital skill-mix. Since a higher nursing skill-mix is associated with a lower inpatient mortality, managed care may contribute to an improvement in outcomes' quality of hospitals.
Gandjour
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Institute of Health Economics and Clinical Epidemiology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Afschin.Gandjour@medizin.uni-koeln.de
D001509:Bed Occupancy; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006302:Health Services Research; D017721:Hospital Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013714:Tennessee