. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2024 May 3.

Published in final edited form as: Med Care Res Rev. 2013 Feb 11;70(4):380–399. doi: 10.1177/1077558713475715

Table 1.

Mean Nurse HPPD and Changes by Regulatory Period and Preregulation Licensed Nurse Staffing Quartile

Staffing measure	Period	Quartile 1	Quartile 2	Quartile 3	Quartile 4

Licensed nurse HPPD^a	Preregulation	4.22	4.92	5.67	6.85
	Transition	4.73	5.48	6.04	6.80
	Postinitial^b	5.75	6.30	6.97	7.28
	Postfinal	6.10	6.84	7.29	7.66
Change in HPPD from preregulation period	Transition	0.57^***	0.57^***	0.46^***	−0.10
	Initial	1.57^***	1.39^***	1.38^***	0.39^*
	Final	1.91^***	1.93^***	1.71^***	0.76^***
Difference-in-difference relative to Quartile 4	Transition	0.66^***	0.66^***	0.56^***
	Initial	1.18^***	1.00^***	1.00^***
	Final	1.15^***	1.17^***	0.95^***
Nonregistry RN HPPD	Preregulation	3.26	3.92	4.25	5.16
	Transition	3.30	4.17	4.26	5.02
	Initial	4.15	4.77	4.91	5.48
	Final	4.43	5.30	5.39	5.95
Change in HPPD from preregulation period	Transition	0.05	0.22	0.05	−0.24
	Initial	0.89^***	0.83^***	0.72^***	0.23
	Final	1.17^***	1.34^***	1.19^***	0.72^**
Difference-in-difference relative to Quartile 4	Transition	0.28	0.46^**	0.29
	Initial	0.66^**	0.60^**	0.49^*
	Final	0.45	0.62^*	0.47
Registry RN HPPD	Preregulation	0.40	0.37	0.58	0.51
	Transition	0.72	0.69	0.95	0.83
	Initial	0.73	0.81	1.15	0.90
	Final	0.85	0.81	1.12	0.88
Change in HPPD from preregulation period	Transition	0.37^***	0.38^***	0.40^***	0.37^***
	Initial	0.38^***	0.50^***	0.61^***	0.44^***
	Final	0.48^***	0.49^***	0.56^***	0.41^***
Difference-in-difference relative to Quartile 4	Transition	0.00	0.01	0.03
	Initial	−0.06	0.06	0.17
	Final	0.07	0.08	0.15
LVN HPPD	Preregulation	0.56	0.63	0.84	1.17
	Transition	0.71	0.61	0.84	0.94
	Initial	0.87	0.72	0.90	0.90
	Final	0.82	0.73	0.78	0.83
Change in HPPD from preregulation period	Transition	0.15^*	−0.03	0.01	−0.23^***
	Initial	0.31^***	0.06	0.06	−0.28^**
	Final	0.26^**	0.10	−0.04	−0.37^***
Difference-in-difference relative to Quartile 4	Transition	0.37^***	0.19^**	0.24^**
	Initial	0.58^***	0.34^**	0.34^**
	Final	0.63^***	0.47^***	0.33^**
Overall patient-to-nurse ratio assuming 26.4 HPPD	Preregulation	6.35:1	5.44:1	4.70:1	3.98:1
	Transition	5.75	5.02	4.51	4.02
	Initial	4.74	4.34	3.89	3.75
	Final	4.62	3.99	3.77	3.55
Number of hospitals		57	57	57	57

Note. HPPD = hours per patient day; RN = registered nurse; LVN = licensed vocational nurse.

^a.

Licensed nurses include RNs, registry RNs, and LVNs. This category excludes aides and orderlies.

^b.

The two postregulation periods are the initial regulation at 1:6 Med-Surg (January 2004–March 2005) and final regulation at 1:5 Med-Surg (March 2005–December 2006).

p < .05.

^**

p < .01.

^***

p < .001.