Nurse Turnover Case Study

In the Vila Heath scenario, data is presented from St. Anthony Medical Center in Minneapolis. The areas of concern are: RN turnover, medication errors, and admissions by age. When evaluating the data, there are limitations for interpreting the data since there are critical pieces of information missing. This review of the data is an assumption based on data from national studies and statistics.

RN Turnover

The average RN turnover rate at St. Anthony Medical Center is 19.3%, this is over the national RN turnover rate of 17.2% and the regional rate of 15.5%. RN’s who work in Pediatrics’ and Women’s Health have the lowest turnover rates. While RN’s with the highest turnover work in the ED, Behavioral Health, and Med/Surg. This data aligns with what is observed in the data at St. Anthony’s Behavioral Health areas has a turnover rate that is 3% greater than the national average for that specialty. The turnover rate should be a concern for nursing leadership since the average cost of RN turnover per nurse ranges from $37,000 to $58,400, losing hospital up to $8.1 million per year. Strategies to improve RN retention such as improving communication from leadership,

Anthony Medical Center is approximately the same in all age groups. The largest group of admission are those ages 0 to 64 years, with the majority of those patients are under 44 years. This data suggests the possibility of increased poverty in St. Anthony’s service area and patients that have less access to care (CDC, 2017). For patients over 65 years, there is fluctuations in admissions that is suggestive of a higher readmission rate for this group of patients. Readmission are a concern for organizations since in 2010, CMS began finically penalizing hospitals for readmission within 30-days of discharge. Strategies to reduce readmissions include daily discharge rounding and follow up calls after discharge (Park, Andrade, Mastey, Sun, & Hicks,