Nurses, hospitals resume battle over staffing
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Successful health care access efforts in Massachusetts are often attributed to industry stakeholders all rowing in the same direction. That's not the case inside many hospitals, where nurses and hospital administrators continue to disagree over a fundamental issue.
Following passage of a law setting nurse staffing requirements in intensive care units, nurses are back on Beacon Hill Tuesday afternoon to resume their quest for a bill requiring “safe patient limits” for nurses working in acute care hospitals.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association, noting that 80 lawmakers are behind their bill, plans to present to the Public Health Committee research that reflects “poor patient conditions” at Bay State hospitals, including an increase in patient injuries, medication errors and patient deaths. Nurses will also flag national reports showing Massachusetts hospitals rank near the bottom for preventable patient readmissions and certain types of preventable infections.
The Massachusetts Hospital Association remains opposed to the bills — S 1206 and H 1958 —sponsored by Sen. Marc Pacheco and Rep. Denise Garlick, which call for a maximum limit on the number of patients assigned to a nurse, while requiring hospitals to adjust nurses’ patient assignments based on the needs of the patients.
In a statement of opposition to the bills released ahead of the hearing, the hospital association and the Organization of Nurse Leaders of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut said the bill’s passage “would significantly set back the progress we have made with healthcare reform in Massachusetts,” and said patients in Massachusetts “receive among the highest quality of care in the nation.”
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