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Having sufficient numbers of nursing staff leads to better patient care and safety. This, in turn, lessens the financial burdens placed on the healthcare system, a study has found ....
The Lancet medical journal suggests that employing more nurses can result in cost savings double the cost of employing the additional nurses. The study was conducted in Australia but may well have important implications for nursing in South Africa. The study, conducted across 55 hospitals in Queensland, suggests that a recent state policy to introduce a minimum ratio of one nurse to four patients for day shifts has successfully improved patient care, with a 7% drop in the chance of death and readmission, and 3% reduction in length of stay for every one less patient a nurse has on their workload. It is these reductions in readmissions and length of hospital stays that resulted in the cost savings. ....
A study conducted across 55 hospitals in Queensland suggests that a recent state policy to introduce a minimum ratio of one nurse to four patients for day shifts has successfully improved patient care, with a 7% drop in the chance of death and readmission and a 3% reduction in length of stay for every one less patient a nurse has on their workload. These reductions resulted in the cost savings. The study compared 27 hospitals where the policy was implemented with 28 hospitals where it wasn’t. “Despite some evidence that more nurses in hospitals could benefit patient safety, similar policies have not been widely implemented across the globe, partly due to an absence of data on the long-term effects and costs, as well as limited resources,” the study authors said. ....