Safe Staffing
Are hospitals putting "Patients First"?
07.16.2009
When hospitals don’t feel the immediate threat of legislative action to set a safe limit on how many patients a nurse cares for at a time, are they still putting Patients First?
Check out the Patient's First Web site to see what your hospital says about your staffing levels. Let your legislators know if your hospital is being understaffed! To find your legislators visit www.capwiz.com/massnurses. Download the Patients First flier for distribution.
For over a decade bedside nurses have been fighting for safe patient limits. For years the hospital industry has vehemently opposed setting this kind of patient safety standard. A few years ago, as part of the industry’s campaign to demonstrate why they can police themselves, the industry unveiled, to great fanfare, the website initiative www.PatientsFirstma.org.
The initiative’s goal was to provide the public with a place to review staffing plans that hospitals would voluntarily put in place. This website was trumpeted as the solution to the crisis in patient care caused by understaffing. Here’s what the industry said at the time:
"Making staffing plans available through this website and through public posting in hospitals is unique to Massachusetts. We’re the first state to do it and we’re proud of our commitment to keeping patients informed about the care they receive. In the future we’re committed to posting hospital-specific information – in an easy-to-understand way – about certain care measures relating to nurse staffing." 1
Bedside nurses were skeptical and continued to push for a law – not a website - to protect their patients. They were right to do so. Posting staffing plans on a website didn’t turn out to be any more effective than the industry’s previous practice of dangerously understaffing RNs. Patients continued to suffer.
What does the industry that championed this website think of it now? Well, we are halfway through 2009 and the hospital industry has yet to report on 2008, let alone post their 2009 plans!
Safe limits will improve patient care, will help retain RNs and will contribute to the prevention of expensive medical errors and hospital acquired infections. The way to keep patients safe is not through a website that no one bothers to update, but by passing safe patient limits. Please support HB 3912/SB 890, An Act Relative to Patient Safety.
1-Patients First Website, http://www.patientsfirstma.org/staffing/.
Massachusetts Hospital Association
