Ohio Nurses call for staffing legilslation

Nurses Demand Lawmakers Force Hospitals To Ease Workload



Wednesday, June 18, 2008 3:13 AM






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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Nurses gathered outside the Statehouse on Tuesday to demand legislation preventing hospitals from assigning too many patients to each nurse. Members of the National Nurses Organizing Committee said when a nurse has to supervise 14 patients in a unit, the workload leads to errors and puts patients at risk, ONN's Dan Weist reported.
Linda Fearer of Girard is not a nurse, but she attended Tuesday's rally. Fearer believes her husband died because the hospital did not have enough nurses for all its patients, even though a jury disagreed.
"He might be here today but for the fact that his nurses were overworked," Fearer said.
Nurse Michelle Mahon of Cleveland said adding more nurses will not raise health care costs.
"Hospitals make more than enough money," Mahon said. "If you look at the bottom line at these hospitals, they're in the millions and yet they are sacrificing patient's lives."
Hospital administrators disagree.
Tiffany Himmelreich of the Ohio Hospitals Association said the nurses' proposal is unnecessary and will hinder, rather than improve patient care.
"Arbitrary ratios do not improve patent care," Himmelreich said. "Giving hospitals flexibility to make sure the right nurses and the right staff are in the right unit at the right time improves patient care."
A similar law was passed in California, and sympathetic Ohio lawmakers plan to introduce a bill sometime soon.




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