The Effect of Registered Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix on Length of Stay and Hospital Costs.

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Nursing Outlook, 2026, v. 73, no. 2: The Effect of Registered Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix on Length of Stay and Hospital Costs.
• Journal Article:
  Nursing Outlook
• Personal Author:
  Li, Yin ; Aiken, Linda H. ; Becker, Edmund R. ; Razmpour, Omid ; Landerfelt, Patti ; Kang, Yu Jin ; Cimiotti, Jeannie P.
• Description:
  Sepsis is a common cause of hospitalization among Medicare beneficiaries, often leading to prolonged hospital stays and high costs.
  
  To estimate the impact of registered nurse (RN) staffing and skill mix on hospital lengths of stay and associated costs for Medicare beneficiaries with sepsis.
  
  A retrospective, cross-sectional analysis was conducted using 2018 data from 2,107 acute care hospitals, including 653,496 patients with sepsis.
  
  A one-unit increase in RN hours per patient day and a 1% increase in RN skill mix reduced hospital stays by 2% and 1%, respectively. Enhancing staffing to nine RN hours per patient day and an 80% RN skill mix could save 63,580 inpatient days annually, reducing costs by $152.9 million. Further increases to 11 RN hours and an 85% skill mix could save $331.9 million.
  
  Better RN staffing and skill mix can improve patient outcomes and yield significant cost savings.
• Content Notes:
  Author manuscript
• Subjects:
  • Humans
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Length of Stay
  • Personnel Staffing and Scheduling
  • Female
  • Hospital Costs
  • Male
  • Nursing Staff, Hospital
  • Aged
  More +
• Keywords:
  • Health care costs
  • Nursing
  • Acute Inpatient Care
  • hospitals
  • Medicare
• Source:
  Nursing Outlook, 2026, v. 73, no. 2
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2025.102356
• ISSN:
  0029-6554 ; 1528-3968
• Pubmed ID:
  39862757
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC12058405
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  R01 CD000033/CD/ODCDC CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R01 HS026232/HS/AHRQ HHSUnited States/ ; R01 NR014855/NR/NINR NIH HHSUnited States/ ; T32 NR007104/NR/NINR NIH HHSUnited States/
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Pages in Document:
  102356 (14 pdf pages)
• Volume:
  73
• Issue:
  2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/261738/cdc_261738_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 98.41 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bb87a0f7de2b3f45f20e88ab323a291666f9d8c69aafe2369d0d4cbfbc2bbcac5a31ddf25a99a05c0a45c06a3078aecedfc76dee14a488bf7385c0ff9fbfebe7