Table 2 Medians (ranges) of the distribution of the mean values of the variables under study for 63 Italian Neonatal Intensive Care Units, overall and stratified by terciles of the mean daily number of patients

Variables

1^st tercile

(<12.4 patients/day)

2^nd tercile

(12.4-17.2 patients/day)

3^rd tercile

(>17.2 patients/day)

P value

Hospital total beds, n.

505 (140–1368)

707 (276–1500)

903 (318–1758)

0.0029

NICU total beds, n.

12 (6–15)

16 (4–28)

24 (7–50)

0.0001

Physicians’ age, years

40.9 (34.0-48.2)

47.1 (36.2-51.7)

46.4 (39.9-50.9)

0.0021

Nurses’ age, years

40.9 (33.8-47.6)

39.2 (31.9-49.1)

37.3 (30.4-50.8)

0.0913

Team meetings on clinical cases, n. per month

2.1 (0.4-22.7)

6.0 (1.0-13.7)

3.0 (0.1-13.7)

0.2334

Team meetings about organizational aspects, n. per month

0.7 (0.1-3.1)

0.6 (0.03-3.9)

0.7 (0.3-3.8)

0.7064

Team training meetings, n. per month

0.4 (0.04-3.8)

0.6 (0.1-3.4)

0.5 (0.1-3.1)

0.3169

Judgment about the qualitative assessment of performances (1 worst; 5 best)

2.2 (1.0-4.0)

2.7 (1.2-3.5)

2.6 (1.3-3.7)

0.6337

Judgment about the presence of critical organizational issues

(1 min; 10 max)

5.2 (3.9-7.3)

5.6 (2.6-7.3)

6.0 (2.8-7.7)

0.2580

Organization capacity to promote physicians’ professionalism and competence

(1 always; 5 never)

2.3 (1.7-3.2)

2.4 (1.8-3.4)

2.5 (1.9-3.7)

0.3784

Motivation within the neonatal unit

(1 highest; 5 lowest)

2.0 (1.0-2.7)

1.9 (1.3-3.0)

1.9 (1.5-2.6)

0.4541

Nursing work environment

(1 worst; 5 best)

2.4 (1.9-2.8)

2.5 (2.1-2.8)

2.4 (2.0-3.0)

0.4611

Number of nurses on duty per shift

3.3 (0.7-5.6)

4.0 (2.8-5.0)

5.2 (4.0-10.8)

0.0001

Acuity score

4.1 (3.0-4.6)

4.2 (3.9-4.6)

4.1 (3.4-4.5)

0.1997

Adjusted nurse-to-patient ratio

0.4 (0.1-0.9)

0.3 (0.2-0.3)

0.2 (0.2-0.4)

0.0004