A study released last month examined the quality of care in New York hospitals during 50 nursing strikes over two decades. The authors, an MIT professor working with a Carnegie Mellon University student, found that in-hospital deaths rose by 19.4% and readmissions by 6.5% for patients treated during strikes. "This study provides some of the first analytical evidence on the effects of healthcare strikes on patients, and suggests that hospitals functioning during nurses' strikes are doing so at a lower quality of patient care," the authors wrote.
