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Massachusetts Nurse :: January/February
2006
Executive Director's column
The hospital industry’s Web scam:
a public relations ploy by any other name
The latest twist in the hospital industry’s
efforts to obstruct the passage of our RN-to-patient ratios bill
is a public relations scam involving the introduction of “Patients
First.”
Kind of makes you wonder where hospitals placed
patients before if not “first,” doesn’t it?
“Patients First” is a Web-based program
that the MHA claims will “disclose hospital staffing plans
online to consumers.” But what it really reveals is the industry’s
ongoing plan to under staff our hospitals. The site shows that hospitals
have wild variations in staffing.
Yes...according to the MHA, you or your loved one
can now—assuming you have Web access—look up what a
particular hospital’s staffing plan is. But the site doesn’t
list every unit in the hospital. It cherry picks only a selection
of units and, even if you find the staffing plan, it is presented
in a way that is totally incomprehensible to most patients.
As you delve a little deeper into the Web site you’ll
also find that the listing for RNs includes not only those directly
assigned to patients but other RNs as well. At some hospitals, it
lists RNs and LPNs as interchangeable, equal professionals. Given
that it’s hypothetical (it’s based on an average daily
census) the fact that your unit is full—or may have even taken
care of more patients than the total number of beds with discharges
and admissions?is obscured to say the least. There is no way to
determine the actual RN-to-patient ratio on the site, which is the
only realistic measure of a nurse’s patient assignment.
So when you look up this information and then look
around the very units sited to see if rhetoric meets reality, don’t
be surprised if it doesn’t. Even the inadequate plan isn’t
met by these institutions (there’s a shock).
And what do the patients glean from this? Well,
there’s some indication of an institution’s commitment
to deliver safe nursing care, but what do they really get? Nothing
other than rhetoric.
Actually, what they get is something worse: they
get misled.
So with hospitals reaching nearly a billion dollars
in profits last year we can certainly see their commitment to patient
care in the form of a slick PR campaign designed to obfuscate the
crisis that is the lack of nurses willing to stay at or return to
the bedside due to overburdened, unsafe workloads. There is now
abundant research to clearly prove the following:
- That RNs make the difference in patient outcomes
- That safe staffing not only saves lives, but
it saves money as well
- That retention and recruitment issues are resolvable
with the implementation of safe RN-to-patient ratios
- That safe RN-to-patient ratios are as appropriate
and necessary to patients as are clinical treatments such as anticoagulant
therapy for heart attack and strokes and preventative cancer screenings
Even with all of this research, the industry’s
position on RN-to-patient ratios remains the same: no way, no how,
not now, not ever.
Fortunately for us, the public, 106 advocacy organizations
and the overwhelming majority of our elected leaders agree with
the MNA and not the hospital industry. So with our continued push—meaning
that we keep the emails, post cards and calls to our legislators
going—leadership at the State House is positioning to move
this issue to a vote and passage this session.
If you need some extra motivation, just click on
the MHA’s Web site to see what their “plan” is.
Then send an email message to your legislators dispelling the hospital
industry’s “Web myth,” and share a dose of nurse/patient
reality. Here are some things you might point out:
- Let them know what the staffing plan is for
your unit and, if you don’t have the staff promised in the
plan, tell them how many patients you are really assigned.
- If you’re assigned more patients than
the MNA’s safe staffing bill recommends, tell them that
for every patient you’re assigned above that number, multiply
it by 7 percent to determine the morbidity and mortality rate
for all your patients.
If you don’t know your legislator’s
email address, search
here.
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