Hospital admissions for asthma, diabetes and COPD: is there an association with practice nurse staffing? A cross sectional study using routinely collected data

Abstract

Abstract Background Delivering good quality primary care for patients with chronic conditions has the potential to reduce non-elective hospital admissions. Practice nurse staffing levels in England have been linked to attainment of general practice performance targets for some chronic conditions. The aim of this study was to examine whether practice nurse staffing level is similarly associated with non-elective hospital admissions in three clinical areas: asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and diabetes. Methods This observational study used cross sectional analysis of routinely collected data. Hospital admissions data for the period 2005-2006 (for asthma, COPD and diabetes) were linked with a database of practice characteristics, nurse staffing data and data on population characteristics for the same period. Statistical modelling explored the relationship between non-elective hospital admission rates for the three conditions and the list size per full time equivalent (FTE) practice nurse. Results Higher practice nurse staffing levels were significantly associated with lower rates of admission for asthma (p Conclusions The inconsistent relationship between nurse staffing and patient outcomes across the different conditions and the fact that for diabetes the relationship between staffing and outcomes was in a different direction from the association between staffing and care quality, highlights the need to avoid making a simple causal interpretation of these findings and reduces the possible confidence in such conclusions. There is a need for more research into the organisation and delivery of diabetes care services in general practice, preferably using patient level data; in order to better understand the impact of the different staffing configurations on patient outcomes.