Health care professional staffing, hospital characteristics, and hospital mortality rates

To evaluate associations among hospital characteristics, staffing levels of health care professionals, and mortality rates in 3763 United States hospi tals, a data base was constructed from the American Hospital Association's Abridged Guide to the Health Care Field and hospital Medicare mortality rat es from the Health Care Financing Administration. A multivariate regression analysis controlling for severity of illness was employed to determine the associations. Hospital characteristics associated with lower mortality wer e occupancy rate and private nonprofit and private for-profit ownership. Mo rtality rates decreased as staffing level per occupied bed increased for me dical residents, registered nurses, registered pharmacists, medical technol ogists, and total hospital personnel. Mortality rates increased as staffing lever per occupied bed increased for hospital administrators and licensed practical-vocational nurses. To our knowledge, this is the first study to s how that pharmacists were associated with lower mortality rates.