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Quality And Cost Analysis Of Nurse Staffing, Discharge Preparation, And Postdischarge Utilization, Marianne E. Weiss, Olga Yakusheva, Kathleen Bobay

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Objectives. To determine the impact of unit-level nurse staffing on quality of discharge teaching, patient perception of discharge readiness, and postdischarge readmission and emergency department (ED) visits, and cost-benefit of adjustments to unit nurse staffing.

Data Sources. Patient questionnaires, electronic medical records, and administrative data for 1,892 medical–surgical patients from 16 nursing units within four acute care hospitals between January and July 2008.

Design. Nested panel data with hospital and unit-level fixed effects and patient and unit-level control variables.

Data Collection/Extraction. Registered nurse (RN) staffing was recorded monthly in hours-per-patient-day. Patient questionnaires were completed before discharge. Thirty-day readmission and ED …