Adverse Events Associated With Organizational Factors of General Hospital Inpatient Psychiatric Care Environments

OBJECTIVE: Although general hospitals receive nearly 60% of all inpatient psychiatric admissions, little is known about the care environment and related adverse events. The purpose of this study was to determine the occurrence of adverse events and examine the extent to which organizing factors of inpatient psychiatric care environments were associated with the occurrence of these events. The events examined were wrong medication, patient falls with injuries, complaints from patients and families, work-related staff injuries, and verbal abuse directed toward nurses. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used data from a 1999 nurse survey linked with hospital data. Nurse surveys from 353 psychiatric registered nurses working in 67 Pennsylvania general hospitals provided information on nurse characteristics, organizational factors, and the occurrence of adverse events. Linear regression models and robust clustering methods at the hospital level were used to study the relationship of organizational factors of psychiatric care environments and adverse event outcomes. RESULTS: Verbal abuse toward registered nurses (79%), complaints (61%), patient falls with injuries (44%), and work-related injuries (39%) were frequent occurrences. Better management skill was associated with fewer patient falls and fewer work-related injuries to staff. In addition, fewer occurrences of staff injuries were associated with better nurse-physician relationship and lower patient-to-nurse staffing ratios. CONCLUSIONS: Adverse events are frequent for inpatient psychiatric care in general hospitals, and organizational factors of care environments are associated with adverse event outcomes. Further development of evidence-based quality and safety monitoring of inpatient psychiatric care in general hospitals is imperative.