Limiting the number of patients a nurse is assigned at one time protects patient safety and is proven to be highly cost-effective. It’s also an investment the hospital industry can afford to make:

• Massachusetts hospitals recently reported nearly $1 billion in profits in 2005.

• On top of this, the Partners Health Care network reported an additional $324 million in profits last year.

• Massachusetts hospitals have completed or are working on expansion projects totaling another half-billion dollars.

But The Hospitals Won’t Set Safe Limits On Their Own

Clearly, no profit margin is large enough for the hospitals to make this commitment. Instead, hospitals will continue to put their dollars into everything but a safe nurse staffing level. In fact, legislation the hospitals have introduced sets no limit on the number of patients a nurse is forced to care for—this is dangerous.

As the author of a new study in the journal Health Affairs stated recently: “Every year, hospital spending goes up because they’ve put in place new technology perceived to improve patient care...And every year the insurers and payers will pay a little more to accommodate that. There’s a bias toward paying for new technology—and a bias against the core function of hospitals, which is to provide nursing care.”

Don’t let hospitals continue to hold back the one life-saver that improves the odds for every patient: a limit on the number of patients a nurse is forced to care for at one time.

Help nurses protect you AND your family. Please, call 617.722.2000 and ask your legislators to support The Nurses' Bill, House 2663.