Increasing nurses in hospitalswith licensed
hours below the seventy-fifth percentile (option
2) requires an increase in FTE RNs of
114,456, and FTE LPNs of more than 13,000,
costing $7.5 billion. If hospitals below either of
these staffing levels increased staffing to the
seventy-fifth percentile (option 3), FTE RNs
would increase by nearly 158,000 and FTE
LPNs would fall, changes that would cost $8.5
billion (Exhibit 3).