Impact of the policy from a cost perspective
Insufficient staffing ratios have a direct relation with patient safety and nurse satisfaction and can lead towards deteriorating work environment and increased hospital costs. Mandatory staffing ratios can improve unsafe workload but fails to enhance or fully utilize operational efficiency of an RN. It is costly to implement and “will only serve to increase stress on a health care system that is overburdened by an escalating national and international shortage of registered professional nurses and has the potential to create a greater risk to public safety” (American Organization of Nurse Executives, 2015). In this era of nursing shortage, healthcare facilities should recruit and retain nurses by providing them safe patient workload and ultimately enhancing their financial performance. According to American Nurses Association, (n.d.) retaining nurses is also a cost –saving measure, as it reduces the amount hospitals spend on recruiting and training new staff and increasing the number of RN's can yield a cost savings of nearly $3 billion – the result of more than 4 million avoided extra stay days for adverse patient events.
American Organization of Nurse Executives (2015). Mandated Staffing Ratios. Retrieved from: http://www.aone.org/resources/leadership%20tools/staffingratios.shtml
American Nurses Association (n.d.). Safe Staffing. Retrieved from: http://www.rnaction.org/site/DocServer/RN_Safe_Staffing_Act_2013-_600_copies.pdf?docID=2181
American Organization of Nurse Executives (2015). Mandated Staffing Ratios. Retrieved from: http://www.aone.org/resources/leadership%20tools/staffingratios.shtml
American Nurses Association (n.d.). Safe Staffing. Retrieved from: http://www.rnaction.org/site/DocServer/RN_Safe_Staffing_Act_2013-_600_copies.pdf?docID=2181