The Relationship Between Staffing Levels and Consumer Complaints in Nursing Homes

ABSTRACT

While research tends to find an association of nurse staffing with quality in nursing homes, few studies examine complaints as a quality measure or account for ancillary staff. This study used federal nursing home complaint data to examine how key explanatory variables including nursing and ancillary staffing were associated with numbers of complaints and the likelihood of receiving a complaint. Results support that nursing home staffing is associated with quality. While direct care staffing was associated with fewer complaints, larger effects were found for social service and activities staffing. Increasing ancillary staffing may be a cost-effective way to reduce complaints.

KEYWORDS:

• Nursing home
• consumer complaints
• staffing
• quality of care

Key Points

• Increased nursing home staffing is associated with fewer nursing home complaints.

• Increased staffing is also associated with a lower likelihood of having a complaint.

• Ancillary staffing affects complaint numbers more than nursing staff levels.

• Adding social service and activities staff may improve quality at a lower cost.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation.