national estimates of adverse outcomes, nursing
full-time equivalents (FTEs), and costs by
multiplying estimates from the sample by 100
divided by 26. We used data on RN wages
from the 1997 and 2002 Current Population
Surveys (CPS) and the change in admissions,
lengths-of-stay, spending per admission, and
spending per day between 2002 and 1997 from
the AHA annual survey to update the estimates
of avoided adverse outcomes, avoided
days, deaths, and costs.