The Factors Affecting COVID-19 Incidences and Deaths of Geriatric Hospital Patients in Korea: Using Castle & Engberg’s Framework

Abstract

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the effect of organizational factors and nursing staff in geriatric hospitals on COVID-19 incidences and deaths. This study is a retrospective study using secondary data from governments nationwide in Korea. We used the number of COVID-19-confirmed cases and deaths among geriatric hospital patients and nurse staffing levels. When the registered nurse (RN) level was higher than the sample mean, the number of COVID-19-confirmed cases by geriatric hospital was significantly lower (4.302%; p = .049) and the number of deaths by geriatric hospitals was marginally significantly lower (1.436%; p = .053). This study presented the national description of geriatric hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic for patients in terms of organizational and nursing staff factors. Our findings highlight the impact of nurse staffing skill mix and the number of geriatric hospitals related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Korea. It is necessary to allocate a realistic designation of infection-control staff and establish a clear standard so infection-control activities in geriatric hospitals can proceed systematically.