Becker's Hospital Review

Staff skill level/expertise/credentials "Skill level and expertise have, in my opinion, the biggest impact on quality of care," said the vice president of patient care at a major academic health sys- tem. The CNO at a major children's hospital in the South agreed: "I believe the evidence shows us that a better skill mix and higher level of education improves patient outcomes significantly," she said. "This data is something we review often at my organization." Approximately 80 percent of surveyed hospital leaders said staff skill level and competency has a high to very high impact on care quality. Yet , only 63 percent of executives said their organizations factor staff skill, experience and credential data when making staffing assignments. Why don't more executives factor skill and competency data when making staff- ing decisions to impact quality? Most executives said the difficulty is in obtaining the data about nurse skill and experience. A CNO said poor access to data and inability to turn that data into actionable information for workforce decision- making creates the gap. The president and COO at a hospital in the Midwest said it's difficult to factor staff experience, credentials and skill sets in scheduling with- out the proper system in place. Staff skill level and competency also have a great effect on staff productivity, ac- cording to executive respondents. Informed staffing assignments help drive nurse engagement and retention. In fact , the Joint Commission has noted that for hos- pitals to create organizational cultures of retention, they should set staffing levels based on nurse competency and skill mix relative to patient mix and acuity. "If you do not have the expertise and staff experience, the turnover will be higher, causing the company to spend more money on orientation and training," said the director of perioperative services at a hospital in the South. Seeing as it costs roughly $82,000 to replace a nurse, the savings of retention are indirect but sub- stantial. That figure, cited in the Journal of Nursing Administration, accounts for the costs of the vacancy, orientation and training, the lowered productivity of a newly hired nurse, and advertising and recruiting. There is a more reliable way for hospitals to obtain data about staff skill level and competency mix. Evidence-based staffing solutions help organizations improve patient outcomes and employee engagement and productivity by assigning the right caregiver to the right patient through equitable staffing assignments based on skill set , unit flow and continuity of care. Percentage of survey respondents that ranked these factors as highly impacting quality of care Staff skill level, expertise and credentials 78% ADT (Admits, discharges and transfers) 70% 74% Patient acuity data

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