NURSING EXCELLENCE Patients who undergo surgery at facilities with excellent nursing staff have a lower risk of post-op complications, a new study finds.

Patients who undergo surgery at hospitals recognized for their superior nursing staffs have better outcomes at similar or lower costs than other hospitals, according to a new study in JAMA Surgery.

In the study, researchers found that patients who had their procedures done at a Magnet hospital — or those recognized for nursing excellence — had significantly lower death rates following surgery. The difference was especially notable for patients who were sicker and had more complicated cases.

Researchers compared 25,000 matched Medicare patients having surgery in 328 hospitals. The pair of patients included 1 from a standard hospital and 1 from a Magnet hospital. The patients had the exact same surgical procedure and were similar in terms of age, sex, severity of illness, demographics and chronic diseases.

The study's authors found that those hospitals with better nursing environments and above-average staffing levels had a lower 30-day post-op mortality rate than those with below-average staffing. Interestingly, the study's authors note that the costs for treating patients at both the Magnet and standard hospitals were not significantly different, suggesting that those facilities with high-quality nursing represented an overall better value for patients.

"A surprising finding was that better nurse staffing throughout the hospital does not have to be more costly," says author Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania, in a statement. "Indeed, we found that Magnet hospitals achieved lower mortality at the same or lower costs by admitting 40% fewer patients to intensive care units and shortening length of hospital stay."

Kendal Gapinski