Risk-Adjusted Staffing to Improve Patient Value

The presence of hospital-acquired conditions, infections, or other adverse events are a reflection of inadequate patient safety and can have short and long-term impacts of quality of life for patients as well as financial implications for the hospital. Using unit-level information to develop a tool, the Patient Risk Assessment Profile, nurses on an inpatient surgical unit proactively assessed patient risk to guide staffing decisions and nurse-patient assignment with the goal to improve patient value, reduce adverse events, and avoid unnecessary hospital costs. Findings showed decreased adverse event rates for patient falls, catheter-acquired urinary tract infection, central line-acquired blood stream infection, and pressure ulcer prevalence after the intervention was implemented. In addition, end-of-shift over-time and patient cost per case decreased as well yielding an operational impact in hospital financial performance.