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9.17.2003
New
Coalition of Healthcare Advocates Unveils "Patient-Safety Checklist"
and "Patient-Watch Hotline" at Press Conference Supporting RN-to-Patient
Ratios
Group
says resources will help consumers assess and report patient safety
issues
[View
the Photos from the Press Conference]
[Go
to the Coalition Web site for more information]
[Click
here to view the Patient Safety Checklist]
[View
Safe Staffing information on the MNA site]
BOSTON—Leaders from more than 60 of the state's most influential health
care and consumer advocacy organizations today urged the Legislature
to enact the Safe Patient Care Bill, and warned Massachusetts patients
to take precautions when hospitalized in order to be certain that understaffing
does not jeopardize their care.
At a press
conference at Nurses Hall in the State House this morning to announce
its formation, the Coalition to Protect Massachusetts Patients declared
its support for House Bill 1282: An Act Ensuring Quality Patient Care
and Safe RN Staffing, which is now before the Joint Committee on Health
Care.
In an innovative
move to help educate consumers, the Coalition also unveiled a Checklist
of Key Questions that patients need to ask when being admitted to a
hospital in order to assess their safety. The questions include:
1. Am I
being cared for by a registered nurse?
2. How
many patients is my registered nurse caring for?
3. What
type of hospital unit (surgical, medical, intensive care, etc.) am I
in?
4. Where
can I go to find the appropriate registered nurse-to-patient ratio for
that unit?
5. Who
should I contact if I want to report an incident related to nurse understaffing?
A printable
copy of the checklist for patients to take with them to the hospital
is available on the Coalition's Web site at www.protectmasspatients.org.
"Knowing
the answers to these questions is imperative for patients who are being
cared for in acute-care facilities," said Phil Mamber, president of
the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, "because the nation's leading
medical journals have each reported that the higher the RN-to-patient
ratio in a hospital the more likely there will be patient deaths or
complications after surgery."
"The Quality
Patient Care/Safe Staffing bill will have a profound impact on the safety
and quality of care provided to patients," said Dr. Lisa McCoy of the
American Cancer Society (ACS) who also spoke at today's press conference.
"This initiative will enhance the efforts of the ACS and its wide volunteer
base in ensuring that those who are afflicted with cancer have safe,
quality care. As an on-going commitment to our mission we proudly support
this important patient-safety initiative."
Joining
Mamber and McCoy at today's press conference were members from Health
Care for All; the Massachusetts Senior Action Council; the Massachusetts
Association of Older Americans; The American Heart Association; the
American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association; The National
Association of Social Workers; and the National Organization for Women.
"We are
proud to be here today with more than 60 consumer and advocacy groups
from across Massachusetts to support this important patient-safety initiative,"
said Carlos Alverez, executive director of the American Lung Association
of Massachusetts. "Our organization works tirelessly to educate and
inform citizens about a variety of lung-related diseases and their causes,
and we work even harder at finding disease-prevention techniques and
treatments. But if patients are not getting the appropriate nursing
care when they're in the hospital, then our work is truly diminished."
The Coalition
also announced that it established a telephone hotline (617.731.2813)
that patients can use to report their safe-staffing concerns, their
complaints and instances of inadequate care. In addition to the patient
checklist, www.protectmasspatients.org
will offer other consumer-oriented resources, including details on RN-to-patient
ratios and research on hospital staffing. Both resources were available
to consumers at the start of business on Wednesday morning.
Julie Pinkham,
RN, and executive director of the Massachusetts Nurses Association,
said that the availability of these new consumer-advocacy tools underscores
that the Coalition will be "waging an all-out campaign to rally the
public and urge lawmakers to vote for the Safe Patient Care Bill."
"The public
needs this legislation," Pinkham said. "The public wants this legislation.
We will now mobilize people to help overcome special interest lobbying
on the part of the health care industry."
A survey
earlier this year by Opinion Dynamics (ODC) found that 82 percent of
registered voters support legislation to regulate RN-to-patient ratios
and that 75 percent are willing to pay more for their health care in
order to guarantee their safety. A separate June ODC survey of Massachusetts
RNs found that 87 percent of nurses report having too many patients
to care for, and that the results are devastating to patients: Nearly
one in three nurses (29 percent) report patient deaths directly attributable
to having too many patients to care for, and two-thirds report instances
of patient complications or substandard care because of understaffing.
H.1282,
which aims to mandate RN-to-patient ratios in all acute care hospitals
in Massachusetts, was developed in response to studies by the New England
Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association,
the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and
other prestigious researchers revealing that the more patients a registered
nurse cares for, the higher the risk of injury, illness and mortality
to those patients. H.1282 also aims to end the current nursing crisis
that exists in the Commonwealth, in light of findings that overwhelming
patient loads are the single biggest reason why RNs are leaving the
bedside in droves.
[View
the Photos from the Press Conference]
[Go
to the Coalition Web site for more information]
[Click
here to view the Patient Safety Checklist]
[View
Safe Staffing information on the MNA site]
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