Hospital administrators in Washington, D.C., are furiously lobbying against a bill modeled on a California law that would require them to maintain a minimum nurse-to-patient ratio at all times.
Nursing unions say the proposed Patient Protection Act codifies into law minimum staffing levels that are needed to maintain patient safety, while hospitals say the cost of hiring new nurses to comply with the law would put them out of business.
The ratios called for in the bill vary depending on the hospital department. In a pediatrics unit, the bill would require no less than a 1-to-4 nurse-to-patient ratio. In the operating room, hospitals would have to maintain a 1-to-1 ratio -- one nurse for every patient at all times.
Deidre Beckford, a nurse at MedStar Washington Hospital Center who has worked there for more than 20 years, says understaffing has forced her to take care of five to six patients at a time. ...
The nursing bill in D.C. would reduce some of this fluctuation. It's modeled after a nearly identical law that took effect in 2004 in California, the only state to require minimum staffing ratios in its hospitals. So far, it's unclear whether this requirement has had a positive or negative effect in California hospitals.
