April 12, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MICHIGAN NURSES TESTIFY TO NEED FOR SAFE PATIENT CARE LEGISLATION AT HOUSE HEALTH POLICY HEARING TODAY

Leaders of the Michigan Nurses Association (MNA), the state’s voice for Michigan’s 117,000 Registered Nurses, today delivered testimony at a hearing of the House Health Policy Subcommittee on Workforce and Patient Safety concerning House Bills 4101 and 4216 and the need for Safe Patient Care legislation to be enacted to save lives and money.

Tom Bissonnette, Executive Director of the MNA said, “The lives of our loved ones are at serious risk. Patients and nurses face unsafe conditions in Michigan hospitals, and Michigan faces a real patient safety crisis.”

“Safe Patient Care legislation saves lives and saves money and is an important first step in fixing a broken healthcare system,” Bissonnette said.

Bissonnette said the passage of Safe Patient Care legislation would prohibit the practice of mandatory overtime, which forces exhausted nurses working in short-staffed hospitals to work multiple shifts and long consecutive hours.

“Overworked and tired nurses make medical mistakes, and patients have died because of hospital abuse of mandatory nurse overtime,” Bissonnette testified. “Forcing exhausted nurses to work multiple mandatory overtime shifts is as frightening as forcing fatigued airline pilots to fly, or demanding tired truckers continue to drive.”

“The number of consecutive hours pilots and truckers can work are regulated in the name of public safety,” Bissonnette said. “Shouldn’t we do the same thing for nurses who are trying to provide safe, quality care to you or your loved ones in a hospital?”

Safe Patient Care legislation would also require hospitals to develop staffing plans and implement minimum registered nurse-to-patient staffing ratios to ensure delivery of safe, quality care to patients.

Bissonnette offered a variety of research to show that Michigan’s patients understand their quality of care is compromised by insufficient numbers of nurses in hospitals, including:

• A recent survey by the National Consumers League which found that nearly half of all recently hospitalized patients reported their care was compromised by inadequate nurse-to-patient ratios;
• A study by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, which found insufficient monitoring of patients caused by poor working conditions and too few nurses in a hospital increases the likelihood of patient deaths and injuries at a time when avoidable medical errors kill up to 98,000 people in U.S. hospitals every year; and
• The average intensive care patient experiences almost two medical errors per day, and one in five are potentially serious or fatal.

Research conducted by Larry Rosen of Lansing-based Public Policy Associates on behalf of the MNA shows that fewer patients per registered nurse typically results in higher quality of care as reflected by lower patient mortality, fewer complications and fewer mistakes, shorter patient hospital stays, and higher job satisfaction, less burnout and less staff turnover among registered nurses.

“Research also shows that Safe Patient Care legislation will help save patient lives and money as mortality rates drop, medical errors are reduced, patient lengths of stay in hospitals decline and nursing staff turnover dramatically drops,” Bissonnette said.

Bissonnette said Safe Patient Care legislation is needed to stop Michigan’s nursing shortage, saying that exhaustion and poor working conditions are driving experienced nurses away from patient care.

“Sadly, nurses are so overworked and hospital conditions so bad, many nurses do not renew their nurse licenses and simply look for work in other professions, or pursue careers away from direct patient care, seeking safer, less stressful jobs,” Bissonnette said.

“We focus on patient safety, but this is also a jobs bill,” Bissonnette continued. “We need more nurses now, and even more in the future. Safe Patient Care legislation will play a major role in creating more nursing jobs and cutting the high rate of attrition we see today as overworked nurses leave direct care.”

Bissonnette said the passage of Safe Patient Care legislation will save money in the long run by helping to contain the large annual increases in patient medical costs, and that many hospitals would already be in compliance with the legislation’s tenets.

“It’s only those hospitals with too few nurses now, which often abuse mandatory nurse overtime and don’t have adequate numbers of nurses on staff, that create the emergency in healthcare we face today,” Bissonnette said.

Bissonnette concluded his testimony by saying, “We are running out of time. Our quality of health care is in jeopardy. For all the citizens of Michigan, Safe Patient Care legislation must be enacted now.”

----- Back to top --- Go to Press Releases --- Go to MNA News -----