Will Maine Have Safe Staffing Requirements?
In Augusta, Maine, that state has promulgated legislation called the Maine Quality Care Act which sets enforceable nurse to patient ratios in many hospitals. The bill unfortunately does not include long-term care facilities where it seems many of the problems occur.
However, it will cover acute care and psych hospitals as well as freestanding emergency departments and ambulatory surgical facilities. This should provide some relief for many nurses.
The legislation, which passed the state’s Labor and Housing Committee, focused to not only protect patients and nurses, but to bring nurses back to the bedside. Should the legislature enact this measure, Maine would be only the second state in the country with this safe staffing legislation following California which was the first in 1999.
Studies have shown that mandated RN to patient ratios improved patient care and decreased patient mortality as well as decreased complications and medical errors. Safe staffing also helps recruit and retain nurses.
However, the legislation is attracting fierce criticism from the Maine Hospital Association (“MHA”). The first point in their press release states is that the initiative will “Cost well over $100 million dollars”. Clearly the hospitals are concerned about increasing their costs rather than improving the quality of care.
The MHA claims also that there will be limited access to hospital care if hospitals cannot meet the minimum staffing ratios and will strip nurses of autonomy and flexibility by stating that the units are based on the condition of patients and the skill and experience of the nurses.
This legislation will not change that. It’s just requiring mandatory minimum staffing, but staffing can flex up as needed. The MHA also claims that the legislation won’t create a nurse. While that is true, nurses are attracted to places with safe staffing so I believe more nurses will move to Maine to have a better working environment.
The MHA’s main concern is that it will not improve healthcare quality. But that is not true according to research. Quality is improved when staffing is improved.
Additionally, they claim it won’t help recruitment and retention, to which I also disagree. I think many nurses are interested in traveling to California because of the safe staffing ratios and I believe the same would be true of Maine.
What do you think about mandatory minimum staffing ratios. Please let me know in the comments.
