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What is NDNQI?

  • National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators
  • Database that measures nursing quality
  • “Only national, nursing quality measurement program which provides hospitals with unit-level performance comparison reports to state, national, and regional percentile distributions.” (NDNQI, 2010b, p. 2).

(ANA, 2009)

Development of NDNQI

  • The changes within the workforce in the 1990s revealed a need for the ANA to assess for links between nurse staffing and the quality of care that patients received (Montalvo, 2007).
  • Nursing sensitive indicators were tested in pilot studies in Arizona, California, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia (NDNQI, 2011).
  • After pilot studies were done in 1994 (Montalvo, 2007), the ANA created the NDNQI in 1998 as part of the Safety and Quality Initiative (NDNQI, 2011).
  • The NDNQI is located at Kansas University Medical Center School of Nursing and is funded by the ANA (NDNQI, 2011).

Goals of NDNQI

  • “Provide participant hospitals with nationals comparative unit level data for use in quality improvement activities,” (NDNQI, 2011).
  • “Develop national data on the relationships between nurse staffing and patient outcomes,” (NDNQI, 2011).

Mission Statement

“NDNQI’s mission is to aid the registered nurse in patient safety and quality improvement efforts by providing research-based national comparative data on nursing care and the relationship to patient outcomes,” (NDNQI, 2010b, p. 2).

Participants

The database includes hospitals from all 50 states, including Washington DC, and some hospitals in other countries.

All hospitals volunteer their information and membership.

Different types of hospitals included in the program include:                 
  • 6 - >500 beds
  • Academic, teaching, nonteaching
  • General, pediatric, rehab, psych, specialty
  • Not-for-profit, government, for-profit
  • Metro, non-metro
    (NDNQI, 2011)

NDNQI (2005) report that patient outcomes and nurse staffing data are currently being collected on the following units:
  • Critical care
  • Step down 
  • Medical/Surgical
  • Psychiatric
  • Pediatric
  • Rehabilitation


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