Hospital experience, nursing major factors

HOUSTON, Jul 25, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Research suggests careful selection of a hospital with a high nurse-to-patient ratio helps reduce post-operative complications after some cancer surgeries.

The researchers said selection of a hospital that either performs many cystectomies --the surgical removal of the urinary bladder -- or has a high nurse-to-patient ratio reduced post-operative mortality and complications by up to 75 percent.

Led by Linda Elting of the University of Texas' M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, researchers investigated the relationship between hospitals' procedure volume and post-operative mortality and morbidity. They also analyzed data for hospital-related risk factors to help explain that relationship.

They found about one in eights patients (12 percent) had post-operative complications and about one in 45 (2.2 percent) died. But hospitals performing more than 10 cystectomies annually showed mortality reduced by nearly 75 percent and complications reduced by approximately 50 percent at the high-volume hospitals.

But hospitals with a high nurse-to-patient ratio reduced post-operative mortality by more than 50 percent, regardless of the hospital's cystectomy volume.

The study appears in the journal CANCER.