BOSTON, July 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Committee to Ensure Safe Patient Care (The Committee) has passed the final hurdle and successfully secured a place on the November 2018 ballot for An Act relative to patient safety and hospital transparency (the Patient Safety Act). The Patient Safety Act will be Question 1 on the ballot.
The Secretary of the Commonwealth notified The Committee that the office had certified 18,145 signatures, well over the number of required signatures for this step of the process. In December 2017, the Committee submitted more than 100,000 signatures to the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, per the Attorney General's Initiative Petition Process.
Nurses who drafted, and are promoting, this measure to improve care for their patients are responding to what they see as a public health crisis. More than three quarters of Massachusetts nurses (77%) believe that RNs are assigned too many patients to care for at one time. And 90% of RNs report that they don't have the time to properly comfort and care for patients and families due to unsafe patient assignments, with 86% of RNs reporting that they don't have the time to educate patients and provide adequate discharge planning. According to recent survey results, nearly 9 in 10 nurses (86%) report that they will vote yes for the Patient Safety Act.
"This has been a long time coming, and nurses have been advocating for a YES for patient safety for decades," said Donna Kelly-Williams, RN at the Cambridge Hospital Birth Center and President of the Massachusetts Nurses Association. "As an active bedside nurse, I see it every day on the hospital floor and I hear it every day from my colleagues across the state. It's time for hospital executives to put patient care over profits."
"The overwhelming number of signatures gathered across this process has been a clear signal that voters want to weigh in, and when voters hear our message ? that nurses are saying YES for patient limits ? they are immediately on board, recognizing the impact for them and for their families," said Kate Norton, spokeswoman for The Committee. "It's crazy to think that there are no limits on the number of patients that managers can assign to a nurse at one time, and the negative consequences are so clear."
Get the Facts: Beyond the Lies and Scare Tactics of Hospital Executives
Independent Studies on Patient Outcomes
Dozens of independent scientific studies have consistently found that the quality of care decreases dramatically when nurses are forced to care for too many patients at once, putting patients at increased risk for complications like pneumonia, infections, bedsores, medication errors and more. These peer-reviewed studies specifically address the impact of safe patient limits on the care of patients in Massachusetts hospitals, including:
The Success of California
More than ten years ago, California established maximum limits on the number of patients that could be assigned to a nurse at one time and the results have been universally positive. This includes a number of independent scientific studies including:
Costs and Financial Performance
In addition, a number of peer reviewed studies indicate that costs incurred through implementation of safe limits will be offset by a number of positive outcomes related to safe patient limits: preventing costly complications, reducing hospital lengths of stay, and reducing hospital readmissions. For example:
About the Patient Safety Act
Today, outside of acute care hospital intensive care units, there is no law that specifies how many patients a nurse can safely care for at one time. It is not uncommon for nurses in Massachusetts to have six or seven patients at one time, when a safe limit would be no more than four patients for a nurse on a typical medical/surgical floor.
The Patient Safety Act will dramatically improve patient safety in Massachusetts hospitals by setting a safe maximum limit in the number of patients assigned to a nurse at one time, while providing flexibility to adjust nurses' patient assignments based on the specific patient needs of patients and the professional judgment of the nurse providing direct patient care. It also protects other valuable members of the health care team by preventing the reduction of other caregivers to meet the limits set by the law. It also allows hospitals to exceed the patient limits during times of state and national emergency.
ABOUT THE COMMITTEE
The Committee to Ensure Safe Patient Care is a broad coalition united in support of the Patient Safety Act, advocating for stronger patient outcomes, and consistency and accountability in our hospitals. The coalition is made up of advocates across Massachusetts, including registered nurses, patients and family members, health and safety organizations, community groups, unions and elected officials. For a full list of endorsing organizations, please visit: https://safepatientlimits.org/who-we-are.
SafePatientLimits.org ? Facebook.com/SafePatientLimits ? Twitter.com/patientsafetyMA ? Instagram.com/safepatientlimits
SOURCE Committee to Ensure Safe Patient Care
These press releases may also interest you
|