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23 RN-to-patient ratios: A cost-effective solution for hospitals RN-to-patient ratios have been demonstrated to produce significant long-term savings for hospitals by reducing patient care costs. By improving staffing conditions, ratios also help hospitals cut RN turnover and reliance on nurse registries. n RN understaffing in hospital intensive care units increases the risk of pneumonia and other preventable infections that can add thousands of dollars to the cost of care of hospital patients — Critical Care, July 19, 2007. n Increasing the hours and raising the proportion of nurses who are RNs would result in a $5.7 billion savings and save 6,700 lives and four million days of patient care in hospitals each year — Health Affairs Magazine, January/February 2006. n Minimum ratios can avert lawsuits and higher malpractice premiums that may follow increased mortality and morbidity caused by inadequate RN staffing. A family was awarded $2.7 million after a patient death due to inadequate nurse staffing — ABC News, Jan. 21, 2006. n Improving RN-to-patient ratios from 1:8 to 1:4 would produce significant cost savings and is less costly than many other basic safety interventions common in hospitals, including clot-busting medica- tions for heart attacks and PAP tests for cervical cancer — Medical Care, Journal of the American Public Health Association, August 2005. n Travel nurses typically cost hospitals at least 20 percent more than a nurse employee even when bene- fits are factored in, says Carol Bradley, chief nursing officer for California for Tenet Health System — USA Today, June 9, 2005. n Johns Hopkins University researchers found that hospitals with fewer RNs in intensive care units at night incurred a 14 percent increase in costs — American Journal of Critical Care, November 2001. n Harvard researchers cite a 3 percent to 6 percent shorter length of stay for patients in hospitals with a high percentage of RNs, reducing costs — Nurse Staffing and Patient Outcomes in Hospitals, Harvard School of Public Health Report, 2001. REV: 07/12