HARRISBURG, March 11, 2009 – Sen. Daylin Leach (D-Delaware/Montgomery) released plans to introduce a bill that would implement new patient-safety requirements at health care facilities, in turn saving the lives of thousands of Pennsylvanians.
The Pennsylvania Hospital Patient Protection Act of 2009, if signed into law, would require hospitals to comply with set Registered Nurse-to-patient ratios on all units at all times. The bill would also provide whistle-blower protection to prevent retaliation against health care workers who report unsafe patient care conditions.
“Various reports in recent years have found that insufficient staffing has a direct correlation to lives lost in patient care,” Leach said. “This bill will set a standard that medical facilities must comply with, and will ensure that we as a state are doing our best to provide safe care to our patients – and a safe working environment to our health workers.”
In October 2002, a report by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that an increase of one patient per RN leads to a 23 percent increase in employee burnout and a 15 percent increase in job dissatisfaction. The American Journal of Public Health found in August 2005 that allowing one RN to care for a maximum of four patients could save up to 72,000 lives nationally.
“Pennsylvania’s nursing shortage is getting worse by the year. This law will guarantee the safe care of patients while creating conditions in our hospitals that will help retain and recruit RNs. Ratios reduce costly medical errors, hospital infections, and the significant expense of replacing the increasing numbers of RNs who leave the bedside due to unsafe staffing conditions,” Leach said.
Leach noted that he modeled the bill after a successful California law that has brought nearly 100,000 additional RNs into the workforce. The Pennsylvania Hospital Patient Protection Act of 2009 is currently in its drafting stages and will be circulated for co-sponsorship in the coming weeks.
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