MA Nurses Report Patient Deaths Due to Unsafe Patient Assignments

Massachusetts Nurses Association, CANTON, Mass. 

78% of RNs agree that the quality of patient care in Massachusetts hospitals is suffering due to unsafe patient assignments including 59% of RNs who are aware of patient complications and 46% who are aware of patients who have been injured or harmed because hospitals are forcing nurses to care for too many patients at one time.

A study of bedside registered nurses in Massachusetts released today by State Representative Denise Garlick, RN (D-Needham) and State Senator Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton) establishes that hospital administrators are assigning too many patients to registered nurses resulting in significant harm and even death for patients. According to the survey, nearly 8-in-10 registered nurses report that the quality of patient care in Massachusetts hospitals is suffering because hospital administrators are requiring nurses to care for too many patients at once and, by more than a 2-1 margin, RNs report that unsafe patient assignments have become worse in recent years, with devastating results for their patients:

Alarmingly, nearly one in four nurses (23%) report patient deaths directly attributable to having too many patients to care for at one time.
46% report injury and harm to patients do to understaffing
51% report longer hospital stays for patients;
56% report readmission of patients due to unsafe patient assignments;
57% report medication errors due to unsafe patient assignments;
59% report complications for patients due to unsafe patient assignments;
68% report RNs don’t have the time to educate patients and provide adequate discharge planning.
82% report RNs don’t have the time to properly comfort and care for patients and families due to unsafe patient assignments

The release of this statewide data on the impact of unsafe patient assignments for nurses on patient mortality follows a recent report by DPH that linked inadequate nursing care and unsafe patient assignments for nurses as a contributing factor in the deaths of two infants and one mother at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton.

“It is unacceptable that erratic staffing decisions lead to medical errors, complications, readmissions and death. Patients in Boston and the Berkshires, teaching hospitals and community hospitals, union and non-union facilities need and deserve quality care. All the work of the Legislature, in this decade, on access and cost containment fails if patients do not receive safe, quality care,” said Garlick, who presented the survey results at a press conference at the State House today.

Garlick is a co-sponsor of H.1008, The Patient Safety Act, which would address this patient safety crisis by establishing safe maximum limits on nurses’ patient assignments, while providing the flexibility to adjust staffing based on patient needs. A similar ballot question, H.3843, is also pending before the Legislature. The legislature has until July to act on the measure, or the measure will go on the ballot in November.

Survey Highlight’s the Industry’s Willful Neglect of Patient Safety Concerns

The new study also highlights the underlying causes of these dangerous conditions and the industry’s lack of effort to adjust nurse’s patient assignments to ensure patient safety. For example:

• By a 2 to 1 margin (48% to 23%), nurses report staffing level decisions are more often based on financial concerns than assessments of patient needs.
• 40 percent of nurses in teaching hospitals and 53 percent of those working in community hospitals report that their administrators are not responsive to their concerns about excessive patient assignments.
• And only 30 percent of nurses report that their administrators consistently adjust their patient assignments based on the needs of their patients.

For nurses, the solution to the patient safety crisis in our hospitals is clear and unequivocal, as nearly 9-in-10 (88%) of nurses support the Patient Safety Act.

The survey detailing the views of our state’s nurses on the quality and safety.

June 6, 2014