Wednesday, October 29
11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Daley Conference Room
Fifth Floor (China Trade Building)
Two Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts
To learn more about the law, join our Telephone Town Meeting on October 15.
You can learn more about the new law, ask questions about what it means for you and your practice, as well as learn how you can participate in the October 29 hearing by joining our Telephone Town Meeting on October 15 at 5 p.m.. MNA will call you directly on the primary number we have on file for you shortly before the Town Meeting to connect you to the event. To participate, just pick up the phone when you get the call.
On October 1, the state will implement a new law that will require hospitals to adhere to safe patient limits for registered nurses who work in all the state’s hospital intensive care units, ensuring that no nurse can be assigned more than one patient or in certain circumstances, no more than two patients based on the assessment of the staff nurses (not managers or supervisors) on that unit.
The new law, An Act for Patient Limits in All Hospital Intensive Care Units, applies to ALL types of intensive care units. The law will also establish criteria for an acuity tool to be used by all hospitals to assist staff nurses in determining if their patient is stable enough to allow for a second patient to be added to the nurses’ assignment.
As part of that process, the Health Policy Commission (HPC) will conduct a Listening Session on the implementation of the new law specifically focused on helping the Commission formulate the “acuity tool,” the method of public reporting of staffing compliance, and 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 this hearing on October 29. Click here for more information about the new law. 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.
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