Nursing Staff Trends in California Hospitals: 1977 through 1995
Joanne Spetz

October 1996

The cost-containment efforts of managed care have led to growing concern among policymakers and the public about the availability and quality of medical services. The author investigates one aspect of this concern: whether there has been a change in the number of hours worked by hospital nursing personnel. She shows how nursing resources have changed over time by calculating the average number of hours worked by nursing personnel per hospital, per discharge, and per patient day. She also examines how the nursing staff mix has changed and how the change has affected hospital expenditures.