Low Hospital Staff Levels Increase Infection Rates

Decreasing the number of nurses on duty in an intensive care unit (ICU) increases the risk of serious infection, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Geneva Hospitals (Switzerland), investigated the number of patients admitted to the ICU who developed ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), over a four-year period. They then compared this to the number of nurses on duty for each patient in the preceding days.

The researchers found that VAP affected over 20% of the 936 patients who received mechanical ventilation during the study. When there were lower numbers of nurses, patients were more likely to catch pneumonia six days or more after being placed on a ventilator. The nurses' training level had no effect on infection rates. The authors concluded that this study backs up findings from their earlier general study on ICU infection risks, namely that employing more than two nurses per patient per day would prevent a large proportion of infections. The study was published online on July 19, 2007, in the open access journal Critical Care.

"This study shows that a low nurse-to-patient ratio increases the risk of late-onset VAP,” said lead author Dr. Stéphane Hugonnet, of the infection control program at the department of internal medicine. "It adds also to the growing body of evidence demonstrating that adequate staffing is a key determinant and a prerequisite for adequate care and patient safety.”

VAP is a medical condition that results from infection, which floods the alveoli in the lung. VAP is distinguished from other kinds of infectious pneumonia because of the different types of microorganisms responsible, antibiotics used to treat it, methods of diagnosis, and effective preventive measures.


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