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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Diane Scherrer
[mailto:dscherrer@mnarn.org] <br>
<br>
</span></p>
<div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><u><span
style='font-size:20.0pt;color:black'>P R E S S R E L E A S E<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>For Immediate Release Contact:
Alex Zaroulis (617) 549-0358 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>July 16, 2008 David
Schildmeier (781) 249-0430<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Nurses/Advocates Outraged by Senate Ways
& Means Committee’s <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Gutting of Safe Staffing Bill, Which Will
Codify Current Unsafe Conditions in Hospitals and Continue to Place Thousands
of Patients in Jeopardy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span
style='font-size:8.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><i>Measure
Eliminates House Compromise Bill’s Call for Safe Staffing Standards and
Patient Limits, Allowing Hospital Administrators to Continue to Set Their Own
Staffing Levels. <o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-1.0in'><span
style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Nurses and
patient advocates, who have been awaiting Senate action on pending legislation
to guarantee safe RN staffing and improved patient safety, are outraged by the
Senate Ways and Means Committee’s release of a harmful version of the
bill that will allow the state’s hospitals to continue the dangerous and
deadly status quo. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>The new senate
bill removes all key compromise provisions achieved through negotiations with
legislators and key stakeholders which were contained in the version that
passed the House (119-35) on May 22. The House version </span><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>called upon the Massachusetts Department
of Public Health to create industry-wide staffing standards and patient limits
to assure safe patient care in all Massachusetts hospitals. The new
Senate version continues to place hospital administrators in charge of setting
their own staffing standards, a practice that has led to a health care crisis
in Massachusetts, where more than 45,000 patients a year are injured and more
than 2,000 patients – six a day – die from preventable infections
and complications they get in the hospital. The Senate version also guts
protections against the dangerous practice of mandatory overtime, which is key
to preventing medication errors by exhausted staff.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Additionally, the
Senate bill fails to recognize the overwhelming body of research that links
safe patient outcomes directly to the number of patients a nurse is caring for
at one time. It also greatly broadens the power of hospital
administrators, who can cut corners and dangerously increase a nurse’s patient
load.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Under the new
law, there would be no uniform standard of care, and instead, the Department of
Pubic Health would only be in charge of enforcing varying and inadequate
standards created by the private sector hospital industry - including the for profit
hospitals. Simply put; this legislation is a hazardous step backward, and would
ensure that current unsafe conditions continue to deteriorate. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>We call upon our
senators to reject this bill that is so dangerous to the public’s safety.
We ask instead that senators build upon the negotiated compromise that has
already been reached and passed the House. This would allow the
Department of Public Health to enforce limits that it determines are in the
public’s best interest, rather than leaving that critical job to the very
institutions that created the crisis we now face. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>The new bill, S.
2805, is scheduled to be taken up for a debate and vote as early as tomorrow,
Thursday, July 17. Nurses and patient advocates are now mobilizing to urge
Senate adoption of amendments that reinstitute the protections in the House
bill.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>The original
compromise bill is supported by more than 130 of the state’s leading
health care and consumer advocacy organizations, as well as more than 80
percent of the bedside nurses and 70 percent of physicians whose ability
to care for the safety of their patients would be favorably affected by passage
of the House version of the bill. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>###</span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>David
Schildmeier<br>
Director of Public Communications<br>
Massachusetts Nurses Association<br>
340 Turnpike St. <br>
Canton, MA 02021<br>
800-882-2056 x717<br>
781-830-5717<br>
781-821-4445 (fax)<br>
781-249-0430 (cell phone)<br>
<a href="mailto:dschildmeier@mnarn.org">dschildmeier@mnarn.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="file:///C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\david\Application%20Data\Microsoft\Signatures\www.massnurses.org"
title="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/david/Application%20Data/Microsoft/Signatures/www.massnurses.org">www.massnurses.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>TO
UNSUBSCRIBE, send an email to wmjwj@wmjwj.org with a Subject of "Unsub
Workers' Rights".<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>[Workers'
Rights] posts opportunities for you to learn about and show solidarity with
workplace and working class struggles. And these events are opportunities for JwJ
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style='color:blue;text-decoration:none'>"</span><span style='color:blue'>I'll
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style='color:blue;text-decoration:none'>"</span></a> This is the core
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<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Western
Mass Jobs with Justice<br>
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