PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to analyze the effects of medical staffing level as bed-to-medical staff ratio on patient outcomes as length of stay (LOS) among hospitals in Korea. METHODS: Two hundred and fifty one hospitals participated in the study between January and March 2008. Data for the study was requested by an electronic data interchange from the Health Insurance Review Agency in 2008. In data analysis, SPSS WIN 15.0 program was utilized for descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. RESULTS: The mean score for length of stay was 13.6 days. The mean of operating bed-to-nurse ratio was 7.93:1. The predicting factors for LOS were bed-to-nurse's aide ratio, bed-to doctor's ratio, severely ill patient rate, and hospital type. These factors explained 28.9% of the variance in patient outcomes. CONCLUSION: This study results indicate that the relationship between medical staffing level and patient outcomes is important in the improvement of the quality of patient care. Thus, improvements in the quality of the nurse practice environment could improve patient outcomes for hospitalized patients.
Electronics ; Electrons ; Humans ; Insurance, Health ; Length of Stay ; Patient Care ; Statistics as Topic

This study sought to describe and to evaluate the characteristics of the Health Screening Records Database (HSRD) of the Korea Association of Health Promotion as a data source for epidemiologic studies. The HSRD was compared to a National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort (NHIS-HEALS) database for 2015. Common variables between the databases were selected, and sex-based analyses were conducted. The HSRD showed statistical concordance when NHIS-HEALS estimates fell within the HSRD estimate's 95% confidence interval. The HSRD and NHIS-HEALS included 946461 and 111690 participants in health screening programs, respectively. Compared to the NHIS-HEALS, the HSRD had more female (55.2% vs. 42.6%) but fewer older adult participants (34.4% vs. 51.2%). Virtually all variables had clinical concordance, with some having statistical concordance as well, among both general and life-transition program participants. The HSRD comprised more clinical information over a wider age range in contrast to the NHIS-HEALS, while showing clinical concordance. Providing more comprehensive clinical data, the HSRD may serve as an alternative resource for epidemiologic studies.
Adult ; Cohort Studies ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Female ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Information Storage and Retrieval ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; National Health Programs ; Observational Study ; Physical Examination