Patient Safety is Our Number One Priority
The Patient Safety Act will dramatically improve patient safety in Massachusetts hospitals by setting a safe maximum limit on the number of patients assigned to a nurse at one time, while providing flexibility to hospitals to adjust nurses’ patient assignments based on specific patient needs.
Latest News
Senator Bernie Sanders endorses Yes on Question 1
Press release: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has added his support to the long list of individuals and organizations encouraging residents to vote YES on Question 1, The Patient Safety Act.
“Nurses are the backbone of our health care system. They are there with us when we are born, when we are sick and in the last years of our lives. They must be allowed to do the quality work that they have trained for,” said Senator Sanders. “Question 1 would set a safe maximum on the number of patients nurses can treat, so that patients can receive the quality care they deserve. Nurses are behind this initiative, and I trust them when it comes to knowing what is best for their patients.”
QUESTION 1 ON NURSE-PATIENT RATIOS: ONE SIDE SAYS TO VOTE YES
BY DAILY ITEM STAFF | October 29, 2018
Every day in Massachusetts, patients in our hospitals push a call button and wait … and wait … for a registered nurse to come to their aid. You could be one of those patients. You might be in severe pain, or frightened or disoriented. You need help, but you wait, sometimes for hours, to receive the care you need. Thankfully, in some cases the wait causes no serious harm. But with some frequency, the lack of a quick response from a nurse can trigger a downturn in a patient’s condition; or lead to a serious and costly complication. And a two-day hospital stay turns into a six-day stay.
The ballot question confusion
Interview with Joe-Anne Fergus from the Massachusetts of Nursing association.
Why I am voting ‘yes’ on 1
Arlington Advocate: I am voting “Yes” on Question 1 because I listen to nurses. I believe in them, and I’ve made it my job to do so, having gone to work for the Mass. Nurses Association years ago. I listened to a nurse who was holding a hand written sign at a protest in front of her hospital. It wasn’t about pay. It was about unsafe patient care. It said: “I can safely take care of four patients at a time. You are number seven.”
‘Yes’ on Question 1
Arlington Advocate: As a potential patient (like all of us), I am very concerned about the cutbacks in nursing staffs in health care facilities as an “economy measure.” Curiously, there has been no attention to the growth in health care administrators salaries now reaching into the seven figures.
