Staffing is one of the largest expenditures for healthcare organizations. It stands to reason that for some organizations a mandatory staffing ratio could negatively impact their financial bottom line. Sometimes ratios can be different within an organization based on acuity of patients or type of unit. Explore your own organization staffing ratio policy. What is/are the ratio(s) and how they are determined? What variables affect the ratios? Have they been mandated by state legislation or organizational policy? How is your operational budget (unit or department) affected by the staffing ratio assigned to it?
Solution:
I work for Keiser Permanente; a California based non-profit making healthcare organization. As the state mandates, Keiser Permanente is required to comply with the California’s mandated minimum nursing staffing ratios as per the law. The healthcare has managed to achieve the mandated staffing as follows:
| HEALTHCARE UNIT | NURSE: PATIENT RATIOS |
| Intensive Care: | |
| Critical Care/ICU | 1:2 (or fewer) |
| Neonatal ICU | 1:2 |
| Continuing Care | 1:4 |
| Mother/Baby: | |
| Labor & Delivery | 1:2 (active labor) |
| Antepartum | 1:4 (non active labor) |
| Postpartum | 1:6 (mothers) |
| Couplet Care | 1:4 (couplets) |
| Well-Baby Nursery | 1:8 |
| Emergency (ER): | |
| Trauma | 1:1 |
| Critical Care | 1:2 |
| Visits | 1:4 + triage nurse |
| Hospital Services: | |
| Medical / Surgical | 1:5 |
| Operating Room | 1:1 |
| Pediatrics | 1:4 |
| Postanesthesia | 1:2 |
| Psychiatry | 1:6 |
| Specialty (e.g. Oncology) | 1:4 or fewer |
| Step-down | 1:3 |
| Telemetry | 1:4 |
The above staffing ratio is determined by the acuity of the patients and the health care unit. The two types of variables that influence the staffing ratios within Keiser Permanente include….Please click the Paypal icon below to purchase full solution for only $5