Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP18387
Authors: Elaine Kelly; Carol Propper; Ben Zaranko
Abstract: This paper examines the role of team production in healthcare, a sector where collaboration, communication and knowledge sharing are crucial. Employing novel high-frequency data we examine the impact of the size and human capital of hospital nursing teams on inpatient mortality. We find significant adverse mortality impacts of shortages of nurses with higher levels of general and firm-specific human capital but no clear returns to location- or team-specific experience. Adverse impacts of nurse shortages are particularly concentrated among patients with sepsis, a condition where early detection is key and nurses play a direct role in monitoring and assessing patients.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I11; J24; J45; M50
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| shortage of nurses with higher levels of general and firm-specific human capital (J24) | patient death (I12) |
| absence of a nurse with a university degree (Y40) | patient death (I12) |
| increasing average firm-specific experience among degree-qualified nurses by one year (J24) | patient death (I12) |
| absence of location-specific or team-specific experience (Z20) | patient death (I12) |