Authors

  1. Section Editor(s): Kennedy, Maureen Shawn MA, RN

Article Content

Reports a study in the October 30, 2008, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Harvard researchers Jha and colleagues studied the results of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey that assessed patients' hospital experiences. In hospitals in "the top quartile of the ratio of nurses to patient-days," 66% of patients rated their hospital experience as a 9 or 10 out of 10, whereas only 61% of patients gave high scores to hospitals in the lowest quartile. The difference was statistically significant. Researchers noted that patient satisfaction may be a direct result of nursing care.