MASSACHUSETTS NURSE NEWSLETTER :: July/August 2007

South Shore RN's Letter to Editor Re Hospital Infections and Staffing Appears in Patriot Ledger

[Click here to read the letter in the Patriot Ledger online]

READER’S VIEW: Nurses cited deadly trend for years

By LISA CASTRO, R.N., Weymouth

The recent Department of Public Health report which shows that more than 2,000 patients a year are dying needlessly from hospital-acquired infections is shocking, but not so surprising to any nurse who has been forced to practice under the current conditions in our state’s hospitals.

For years, registered nurses in Massachusetts have been sounding the alarm of the deadly consequences of being forced to care for too many patients at one time.

More than 20 studies have surfaced in the last five years validating nurses’ dire warnings. Two studies in the last three months have made a direct link between the understaffing of RNs and an increase in hospital-acquired infections. One of those studies found that reducing a nurse’s assignment from two patients to one patient in the ICU could reduce infections by more than 68 percent.

As a frontline nurse who struggles every day to keep my patients safe, the solution to this crisis and the best means of preventing these deadly infections is to pass pending legislation on Beacon Hill, House Bill: 2059, the Patient Safety Act, which would set a safe limit on the number of patients assigned to a nurse at one time.

The DPH report found that these preventable infections cost the system more than half a billion dollars per year. This is at a time when hospitals are posting record profits of more than $1 billion annually.

What may be the personal cost to those who have acquired a hospital infection?

Is that why our health insurance premiums continue to rise?

It’s time we require our hospitals to invest in saving lives, instead of allowing them to profit from taking them. The Patient Safety Act is a reasonable solution, and it will save lives.