Public Reporting of Nurse Staffing in the United States

Extensive evidence supports the association between increased nurse staffing and improved quality of patient care. Public reporting or public disclosure of nurse staffing patterns aims to incentivize hospitals to improve staffing by making comparison data available for consumers as well as nurses and hospital administrators. Currently, eight states in the United States publicly report and disclose information on nurse staffing levels to the public. We review the available public reporting mechanisms by systematically categorizing and comparing states that report nurse staffing. We also discuss the implications for future state and federal policy with regard to publicly reporting or disclosing nurse staffing.