Purpose
The aim of this study was to examine the differences in nurse staffing levels and patient outcomes in long-term care hospitals by region and to identity the effects of nurse staffing level and registered nurse proportion on patient outcomes.
Methods
A secondary analysis of national data that included general characteristics of hospitals and long-term care hospitals’ evaluation results from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Services was conducted, and 1,205 hospitals were selected.
Results
Results showed that the mean number of patients per nursing staff and registered nurse proportion were 4.27 and 0.43, respectively. The differences in long-term care hospitals’ evaluation results and nurse staffing levels according to region were significant. A logistic regression analysis showed that the number of patients per nursing staff affected the probability of the patient experiencing a decline in daily life activities, as well as a decline in the outcomes of patients who were non-dementia; registered nurse proportion affected the outcomes of patients with dementia.
Conclusion
The findings suggest that implementing policies to improve long-term care hospitals’ nurse staffing level and registered nurse proportion is important. Ensuring mandatory registered nurse staffing levels based on the severity of patients’ diagnoses is also necessary.

Citations

• Factors Affecting Fall Incidents at Long-term Care Hospitals: Using Data from the Korea Patient Safety Reporting and Learning System
  Soojin Chung, Jeongim Lee
  Journal of Health Informatics and Statistics.2025; 50(1): 96.     CrossRef
• Registered Nurse Staffing and Inpatient Outcomes in Korean Long-Term Care Hospitals
  Sujin Shin, Jung Min Yoon, Eun-Ju Moon, Mi-Ji Lee, Jin-Hwa Park
  Healthcare.2024; 12(24): 2509.     CrossRef
• Factors Associated with Patient Safety Incidents in Long-Term Care Hospitals: A Secondary Data Analysis
  Sookhee Yoon, Myungsuk Kang
  Korean Journal of Adult Nursing.2022; 34(3): 295.     CrossRef
• Type D personality, cognitive illness perception, depression, approach coping, and self-management among older adults in long-term care hospitals: Structural equation modeling
  Sunki Kim, Mona Choi, JuHee Lee, Heejung Kim, Kijun Song, Hye-Ja Park
  Geriatric Nursing.2022; 48: 150.     CrossRef