Queensland Health - PAIS validation study : results and issues for nursing cost capture

Following a commitment made in December 1993 by a previous Minister for Health with the Queensland Nurses Union to implement Patient Nurse Dependency Systems (PNDS) in Queensland hospitals, fifteen hospitals have implemented the McDonnel Information System PAIS based PNDS which is the corporate system. The remaining seven, from the greater than 100 beds hospitals eligible for inclusion in the Queensland Health PND project, have elected to continue to use an alternative PNDS called TRENDCARE. One component ofthe PNDS Implementation Project was to validate and review the PAIS standard time values. This paper will cover the results of a study conducted to validate and review the PAIS standard time values using the same work sampling methodology orginally developed and used by the author to develop and validate PAIS during 1981182. This recent study was conducted during July and August 1995 in nineteen medical/surgical and maternity wards, in eight hospitals across five Queensland Regional Health Authorities. These sites were selected as a representative sample following an analysis of a 72 item Organisational Factors Questionnaire.