Impact of nursing overtime on nurse-sensitive patient outcomes in New York hospitals, 1995-2000.
During the past several years, nurses and their advocates have expressed concern about heavy use of overtime in hospitals and claimed that it undermines the quality of nursing care. Using staffing and discharge data covering 1995 to 2000 from 161 acute general hospitals in New York State, this study uses multi variate regression to analyze the relationship between overtime and the rates of six nurse-sensitive patient outcomes and mortality. We find an association of overtime with lower rates of mortality in medical and surgical patients but do not consider these findings definitive. Because overtime use is episodic and unit specific, further study of these issues using data that examines the occurrence of adverse events by unit during periods of heavy nurse overtime is recommended.
Berney
Barbara
B
School of Health Sciences, Hunter College, New York.
Needleman
Jack
J
D003363:Cost Control; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000453:epidemiology; D006302:Health Services Research; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000453:epidemiology; D017052:Hospital Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D006769:Hospitals, General / Q000458:organization & administration; D006788:Hospitals, Voluntary / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009518:New York / Q000453:epidemiology; D015401:Nursing Administration Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000600:supply & distribution* / Q000639:trends; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012769:Shock / Q000453:epidemiology; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*