MHA: Worst time for nurse-patient limits

The president of the Massachusetts Hospital Association told the Committee on Public Health recently that “there couldn’t be a worse time” to impose limits on nurse-patient ratios in the state. Lynn Nicholas backs S. 876, a bill that would establish committees of nurses and other staff at every hospital to develop individualized staffing plans.

Advocates for registered nurses favor other proposals, H. 3912/S. 890, which would phase in nurse-patient ratios over two years for teaching hospitals and four years for community hospitals, and leave the determination of appropriate nurse staffing levels to the Department of Public Health.

Hospital managers argue that amid an economic downturn, financially strapped hospitals simply could not afford stepped-up staffing levels that could cost tens of millions of dollars.

Christine Schuster, CEO of Emerson Hospital, said, “In a busy day in our ICU, I’d rather have five senior registered nurses and support staff than seven new graduates.”

But Donna Kelly-Williams, the president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, argued that incidences of hospital-acquired infection, pneumonia, deep-vein thrombosis and bed sores are a direct result of overworked nurses unable to provide adequate attention to patients, adding tens of thousands of dollars to patients’ bills. “I would argue that hospitals truly cannot afford to continue these unsafe staffing practices,” Kelly-Williams said.