News & Events

Learn More About the New ICU Safe Patient Limits Law

Join Our Telephone Town Meeting on Weds. Oct. 15 at 5 p.m.

Oct. 1 marked the start of the new "safe patient limits" law for all ICU RNs in Massachusetts hospitals. As this law unfolds, the MNA wants you to know about two related dates where your support will matter:

1. An Oct. 15 Telephone Town Meeting, where you and the entire MNA membership can learn more about the law, as well as ask questions about what it means for you and your practice. Don’t worry about calling us on 10/15; we’ll call you! When? At approximately 5 p.m. on Oct. 15 at the primary number we have on file for you. To participate, simply pick up the phone when you get the call.

2. An Oct. 29 listening session with the state’s Health Policy Commission. This session will focus on the implementation of the new ICU staffing law and, specifically, on

• Helping the Commission formulate the “acuity tool”
• Establishing the method of public reporting of staffing compliance
• Identifying three to five patient safety quality indicators to be measured and reported by hospitals

The MNA is currently working with ICU nurses and other nurses across the state to prepare for this hearing, and we encourage ICU nurses to attend. If you have questions about the law and would like to speak at the hearing, contact Dorothy McCabe in the MNA/NNU Division of Nursing via email at dmccabe@mnarn.org.

To help educate the public about the new law, the MNA/NNU has launched a TV and radio ad campaign to alert the public about the law and to advise them to ask how many other patients their nurse is being assigned. (View TV ad, Listen to radio ad)
 
Click here For a complete primer on the new law ICU/Safe Patient Limits Law.