Patient Mortality Is Associated With Staff Resources and Workload in the ICU: A Multicenter Observational Study (original) (raw)

Matching healthcare staff resources to patient needs in the ICU is a key factor for quality of care. We aimed to assess the impact of the staffing-to-patient ratio and workload on ICU mortality. We performed a multicenter longitudinal study using routinely collected hospital data. Information pertaining to every patient in eight ICUs from four university hospitals from January to December 2013 was analyzed. A total of 5,718 inpatient stays were included. None. We used a shift-by-shift varying measure of the patient-to-caregiver ratio in combination with workload to establish their relationships with ICU mortality over time, excluding patients with decision to forego life-sustaining therapy. Using a multilevel Poisson regression, we quantified ICU mortality-relative risk, adjusted for patient turnover, severity, and staffing levels. The risk of death was increased by 3.5 (95% CI, 1.3-9.1) when the patient-to-nurse ratio was greater than 2.5, and it was increased by 2.0 (95% CI, 1.3-3...