Urge Passage of the Patient Safety Act to Set Safe Patient Limits for Safer Patient Care
Registered nurses from Marlborough Hospital met recently with Senator Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton), Representative Carolyn Dykema (D-Holliston), and Representative Danielle Gregoire (D-Marlborough) to stress the importance of passing the Patient Safety Act and to inform them about the serious patient safety crisis at Marlborough Hospital. The hospital recently reduced RN and support staffing in the emergency department, and nurses on medical/surgical and telemetry floors are being assigned 6 and 7 patients at a time, which, according to the medical research, is placing those patients at a 14 – 21 percent increased risk for injury or death. These unsafe patient care conditions have resulted in Marlborough Hospital having the second highest rate of patient readmissions in Massachusetts, a state that ranks 42nd worst in the nations for readmission of patients due to poor patient care. The Patient Safety Act will address this crisis for all nurses and all patients in Massachusetts by setting a safe limit on the number of patients assigned to a nurse at one time. To learn more, visit PatientSafetyAct.com.
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