Nurse Unions and Patient Outcomes

34 Pages Posted: 28 Jun 2014 Last revised: 24 Sep 2024

See all articles by Arindrajit Dube

Arindrajit Dube

University of California, Berkeley - Institute for Research on Labor and Employment; University of California, Berkeley - Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

Ethan Kaplan

Stockholm University - Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES)

Owen Thompson

Williams College - Department of Economics

Abstract

We estimate the impact of nurse unions on health care quality using patient discharge data and the universe of hospital unionizations in California between 1996 and 2005. We find that hospitals with a successful union election outperform hospitals with a failed election in 12 of 13 nurse sensitive patient outcomes measures. We also find that hospitals with a unionization drive are establishments with declining quality as measured by patient outcomes. When such declines are accounted for using hospital-specific trends, we find that unionized hospitals also outperform hospitals without any union election in the same 12 of 13 outcome measures.The timing of the quality improvement is consistent with a causal impact: the largest changes occur precisely in the year of unionization. The biggest improvements are found in the incidence of metabolic derangement, pulmonary failure, and central nervous system disorders such as depression and delusion, where the estimated changes are between 15% and 60% of the mean incidence for those measures. Dynamic estimates confirm that the improvements in health care outcomes occur within the first two years following nurse unionization.

Keywords: health care quality, nurses, unions, hospitals

JEL Classification: I12, J51

Suggested Citation

Dube, Arindrajit and Dube, Arindrajit and Kaplan, Ethan Daniel and Thompson, Owen, Nurse Unions and Patient Outcomes. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8259, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2460202

Arindrajit Dube (Contact Author)

University of California, Berkeley - Institute for Research on Labor and Employment ( email )

2521 Channing Way
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States
510-642-9951 (Phone)

University of California, Berkeley - Institute for Research on Labor and Employment ( email )

2521 Channing Way #5555
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States
510-642-9951 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/cwed/dube.html

Ethan Daniel Kaplan

Stockholm University - Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES) ( email )

Stockholm, SE-10691
Sweden

Owen Thompson

Williams College - Department of Economics ( email )

Fernald House
Williamstown, MA 01267
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
301
Abstract Views
2,028
Rank
202,673
PlumX Metrics