Number of additional hospital-acquired infections associated with every extra patient assigned to a nurse’s workload, according to a study of more than 7,000 nurses working in 161 hospitals in Pa. The finding, which sought to quantify the health hazards of nurse burnout, found that for each 10% jump in the proportion of nurses who reported high levels of burnout, there was one extra catheter-associated urinary tract infection per 1,000 patients and nearly two extra surgical site infections per 1,000 patients. Further, the study found, when hospitals cut the proportion of burned-out nurses from 30% to 10%, they eliminated an average 4,160 infections and saved $41 million in hospital costs a year. [via MSNBC]
