Organisational quality, nurse staffing and the quality of chronic disease management in primary care: Observational study using routinely collected data
Section snippets
Data sources and sample
We used Quality and Outcomes Framework data for 2005/2006 obtained from the NHS Information Centre at Leeds (United Kingdom) as a source of data on both organisational factors and the quality of clinical care for a range of long term conditions: asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism, severe long term mental health problems, and stroke. These data were matched to practice and population data. An estimate of the number of
Results
The global effect of practice nurse staffing was statistically significant (χ2 = 37.43, 6d.f., p < 0.001). Practice nurse staffing was positively and significantly (p < 0.01) associated with quality of care scores for COPD, CHD, Diabetes, and Hypothyroidism (Table 2)2
Discussion
Higher levels of nurse staffing, clinical recording, education and reflection on the results of patient surveys were all associated with improved clinical care across a range of conditions. The trend in increasing quality of clinical care with increased nurse staffing that we found previously (Griffiths et al., 2010a, Griffiths et al., 2010b) was confirmed across several of the clinical conditions (COPD, CHD, Diabetes, and Hypothyroidism) after controlling for organisational factors. In almost
Acknowledgements
This is an independent report commissioned and funded by the Policy Research Programme in the Department of Health in England. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Department.
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