Surgery patients do better when hospitals are good to nurses

Surgery patients do better when nurses have better working environments, according to a new study. Hospitals with well-staffed, top-notch nursing departments had fewer deaths after surgery than hospitals without those high-quality nursing departments, researchers found. "This study is for the person, referring doctor or health policy analyst asking, 'Would I be better off at this hospital or that hospital?'" said lead author Dr. Jeffrey Silber, who is the Nancy Abramson Wolfson Professor in Health Services Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Hospitals with the better nursing departments also had fewer patients die after a surgical complication, the researchers report in JAMA Surgery.