Freeing up nurses to spend more time on patient care may reduce sepsis deaths among the Medicare population, a study published May 27 in JAMA Health Forum suggests.
A team led by researchers at Emory University in Atlanta analyzed data on Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 and up who were admitted to 1,958 hospitals for sepsis in 2018. Researchers used hours of care per inpatient day, or HPPD, to measure registered nurse's workload.
Patient exposure to each additional hour of care per inpatient day was associated with a 3 percent decrease in the odds of sepsis mortality, researchers found.
"The study findings suggest that nurse workload is an overlooked and underused aspect of the treatment bundle for patients with a diagnosis of sepsis," researchers said.
View the full study here.