Penn State Center for Health Care and Policy Research (CHCPR) faculty affiliate Dr. Jeannette Rogowski, Professor of Health Policy and Administration, published a report in Nursing Research assessing nursing-sensitive indicators in hospitals that serve higher proportions of Black patients (Black-serving hospitals). Black-serving hospitals were previously found to have higher mortality, poorer patient safety, and worse nurse staffing, but little was known about nursing-sensitive indicators. Nursing-sensitive indicators inform patient safety and care quality specifically from nursing care, and are influenced by skill mix, staffing, and workplace culture.
In an analysis of 3,101 hospitals, Dr. Rogowski and her collaborators found that Black-serving hospitals had significantly worse nursing-sensitive indicators than non-Black-serving hospitals in three of the four categories (pressure ulcer, pulmonary embolism/deep vein thrombosis, and sepsis). The differences in nursing-sensitive indicators across hospital types ranged from 6% to 18%.
This is the first study comparing nursing-sensitive indicators among Black-serving hospitals and non-Black-serving hospitals. These findings revealed another avenue to disparities in health outcomes and presented opportunities to improve health equity from policy and management perspectives.
Lake ET, Tibbitt CC, Rizzo JF, Iroegbu C, Smith JG, Staiger DO, Rogowski JA. Worse Nursing-Sensitive Indicators in Black-Serving Hospitals. Nursing Research. 2025; 74 (4): 324-328. doi: 10.1097/NNR.0000000000000819.
A link to the full text of the article is here.