Measure Requires Safe Patient Limits for Nurses Working in Acute Care Hospitals
Testimony to Include New Research on Poor Patient Care Conditions at Mass Hospitals, Where Nurses Report an Increase in Patient Injuries, Medication Errors and Patient Deaths Due to Unsafe Patient Assignments
BOSTON, Oct. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Health care advocates, lawmakers, and nurses will testify Tuesday at a hearing held by the Joint Committee on Public Health on the Patient Safety Act (S. 1206/H1958), legislation sponsored by Senator Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton) and Representative Denise Garlick (D-Needham) that will dramatically improve patient safety by establishing a maximum limit on the number of patients assigned to a nurse at one time, while also requiring hospitals to adjust nurses' patient assignments based on the specific needs of the patients. Eighty lawmakers from all areas of the state have signed on as co-sponsors to the bill, and a number will be on hand to urge its passage.
The hearing follows the release earlier this year of two independent national reports showing Massachusetts hospitals rank near the bottom nationally (46th worst) for preventable patient readmissions and certain types of preventable infections. It also comes in the wake of a survey of Mass. nurses released in May showing that more than 8 in 10 RNs report that quality of patient care in Massachusetts hospitals is suffering because hospital administrators are requiring nurses to care for too many patients at once. A shocking 1 in 4 nurses report patient deaths directly attributable to unsafe patient assignments. The same numbers of nurses say they would not admit their own family members to the unit on which they work. The filing of the Patient Safety Act follows the legislature's unanimous passage of a landmark law last year establishing safe patient limits for nurses working in hospital intensive care units. The new law would extend appropriate, scientifically-based limits to all areas of the hospital.
The hearing will include the presentation of new data by Boston College researcher and professor Judith Shindul-Rothschild, RN, PhD, on Massachusetts hospital staffing levels and the impact on patient safety in our state.
When: Tuesday, October 20 at 1 p.m.
Where: State House, Room B2
Who: Nurses from different areas of the state will participate in the hearing
and be available for interviews by the local media.
Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest professional health care organization and the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public. The MNA is also a founding member of National Nurses United, the largest national nurses union in the United States with more than 170,000 members from coast to coast.
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SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association
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