Anyone who has spent any amount of time in a hospital knows how critical good nurses are to a patient’s care and recovery. A bill before the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee today would require hospitals to develop and implement nurse-to-patient staffing plans for each patient care unit and make them available to the public as part of the new Hospital Report Card.
It is an important bill that we hope the legislature approves. The bill does not require hospitals to have a specific number of nurses in each unit, only that they develop staffing plans, disclose them to the public and “make a good faith effort” to stick to them. With such information available, patients can determine for themselves which hospital will best serve their needs.
The Colorado Hospital Association opposes the measure, worrying that it will drive up costs. Spokesperson Marty Arizumi said the bill “won’t do anything to ensure access to care; in fact it may impair access to care.” A lobbyist for Exempla Healthcare, Debbie Welle-Powell, says it will make hospitals less flexible. We believe such arguments are a red herring – after all, the hospitals already develop precise staffing plans. This process will allow patients to see how nursing staff levels differ from facility to facility.
Senate Bill 10, sponsored by Sen. Lois Tochtrop, a registered nurse, would punish any of Colorado’s 91 hospitals with possible fines for not acting in good faith to follow their own staffing plans.
Supporters cite many things that can go wrong when hospitals skimp on qualified nurses. Medical instruments might not be properly sterilized; inexperienced nurses get shifted to the intensive care unit, risking mistakes that could jeopardize the patients’ care.
Understaffing also places good nurses in highly stressful conditions and in the end drives many of them to leave hospitals, where they are badly needed, and into more attractive nursing jobs. A 2005 study by the Colorado Board of Nursing found that the majority of nurses in Colorado, including 63 percent in the metro area, believed their hospitals were inadequately staffed. Bill supporters believe that if hospitals were to increase their nursing ratios, more qualified nurses would return.
Patients have a right to know what their hospital’s staffing levels are, and disclosure will act as a deterrent to staffing plans that fall beneath the industry standards. SB 10 will enable patients to get access to that vital information. Moreover, we believe it will improve patient care in Colorado hospitals.
