[Antiracism] [Workers Rights] Safer Hospitals

[WMass Jobs With Justice]

Dear Workers Rights Supporter,

Please take a look at H.2059, The Patient Safety Act:
http://www.massnurses.org/safe_care/Safe_Staffing/ratios.htm. 

As the article below says:  [State Rep.] Canavan, who is a nurse, ... said
it will be important for voters to let their senators know they want the
bill to become law.  "It absolutely has to be the registered voters in the
districts of the senators saying, 'Please protect us and please pass this
bill,'" she said.

She's absolutely right!  You can join the campaign to "pass this bill" and
win safe staffing in the hospitals - safe for patients, safe for nurses,
safe for all hospital workers - by 

(1) signing a postcard to your state Rep and Senator and the Governor, and
getting others to sign - please Reply with how many postcards I should send
you - the Campaign will pay the postage

and by 

(2) getting on the Western Mass bus to Boston for the legislative hearing on
H.2059 on October 24 - please see the attachment.

In solidarity,

Jon
827-0301

*****

Staffing ratios stir controversy
Monday, September 17, 2007
By MICHAEL McAULIFFE
mmcauliffe at repub.com

The issue of how many patients a registered nurse in a hospital should care
for will be taken up again on Beacon Hill in October.

Some suggest there should be minimum staffing levels; others that each
hospital should be able to decide how to staff any unit. Proposed
legislation set for a hearing in Boston would allow the state Department of
Public Health to establish minimum staffing standards for hospitals
statewide.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association is expressing confidence that the bill
will be approved by the Legislature.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association believes hospitals need to have the
flexibility to determine their staffing needs.

"In terms of providing appropriate patient care, that's the appropriate way
to go," said Richard W. Copp, the hospital association's director of
communications.

"I think, at the end of the day, our message is being heard," Copp added.

The argument over nurse staffing levels has been going on for years, and the
chief sponsor of the bill detailing nurse-patient ratios is state Rep.
Christine E. Canavan, D-Brockton. A similar bill was overwhelmingly approved
by a 133-20 vote in the House last year but never made it out of the
Legislature.

A hearing on the bill before the Joint Committee on Public Health is
scheduled for Oct. 24.

Another bill, authored by state Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, which is
also scheduled for a hearing before the committee the same day, does not
establish ratios but includes provisions to increase the number of nurses in
the state and retain those already in the profession. The bill also requires
every hospital to annually produce a nurse staffing plan that is readily
available for public review.

Karen O. Moore, vice president of hospital operations at Baystate Franklin
Medical Center in Greenfield and former president of the Massachusetts
Organization of Nurse Executives, said flexibility in staffing is critical
to providing the best care for patients.* 

"We're not making widgets. We're taking care of patients who change on a
dime. ... This is not piecework," said Moore, who has been a nurse for 30
years.

James M. Keefe, vice president of inpatient services at Holyoke Medical
Center, echoed the concerns of Copp and Karen O. Moore about flexibility
when he said the bill pushed by Canavan does not allow for nurse staffing
based on the condition of individual patients.

"The Canavan model is very rigid and only allows you to deliver care based
on the number of patients and the number of registered nurses," Keefe said.

But Northampton resident Patricia E. Healey, a nurse who works in the
intensive care unit at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, strongly
supports establishing ratios. The hospitals' argument for flexibility is
really aimed at keeping staffing levels down and saving money, according to
Healey.

"People die from lack of nursing care," she said.

While specific ratios have been put forth - such as no more than two nurses
for every patient in an intensive care unit - under Canavan's bill the state
Department of Public Health would develop minimum staffing standards.

In addition, the bill provides for relief from meeting staffing standards
for hospitals in financial distress and includes measures to bring more
people into nursing.

"We feel very confident that this has been vetted by the Legislature very
carefully," said David J. Schildmeier, director of public communications for
the nurses' association.

As for passage of the bill, Schildmeier said: "It's going to happen."

In addition to having support on Beacon Hill, Schildmeier said more than 100
organizations back the bill, including the American Heart Association, the
American Lung Association and the National Emergency Medical Services
Association.

California is the only state that has nurse-patient staffing ratios, said
Schildmeier, and he contends there has been "no negative impact" in the
country's most populous state.

Karen O. Moore, who is not related to the senator, said Massachusetts is the
only state where every hospital already voluntarily posts staffing plans.

"We have nothing to hide," she said.

Among staffing plans for area hospitals for this year, the day shift
nurse-patient ratios are projected to be less than 2-to-1 in intensive care
units at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Holyoke Medical Center and
Noble Hospital in Westfield. Last year's day shift staffing averages in the
units at Baystate and Noble were less than 2-to-1, and at Holyoke Medical
below or slightly above that ratio, depending on the day of the week.

Canavan, who is a nurse, is not as confident as Schildmeier about passage of
the bill she is championing during the current session. Canavan said it will
be important for voters to let their senators know they want the bill to
become law.

"It absolutely has to be the registered voters in the districts of the
senators saying, 'Please protect us and please pass this bill,'" she said.

.....................

*Speaking of "flexibility", we note that Karen O. Moore no longer works for
Baystate - her job was eliminated!	 

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