Today, registered nurses are gathering in Center City Philadelphia to learn about the details of a sweeping patient safety bill just introduced into the Pennsylvania State Senate. The Pennsylvania Hospital Patient Protection Act of 2009, introduced by Senator Daylin Leach (D-17), would save the lives of countless Pennsylvania patients by requiring hospitals to abide by mandated, safe RN-to-patient ratios on all units at all times, as well as provide for genuine whistle-blower for RNs who report unsafe care conditions.

The bill is mirrored on a highly successful California law that has brought more RNs into the workforce. Since the law was enacted, the number of active RNs in California has grown by nearly 100,000, with a yearly increase that is triple the number before the law.

“In California, with ratios, RNs now have the support and time they need to provide higher quality care,” said Hedy Dumpel, RN, JD, National Director of Nursing Practice and Patient Advocacy for the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee “We have ratios for schoolteachers and prison guards, and specific standards for clean air and water. Why not in our hospitals?”

The Pennsylvania RN ratios would require minimum ratios by unit, with increased staffing when needed based on the severity of patient illness. Research has shown the need for such an approach.  One study found that cutting ratios to one RN per four patients could save 72,000 lives nationally, (The American Journal of Public Health, August 2005) while another found that up to 22,000 American lives are lost each year due to unsafe ratios. (Journal of the American Medical Association, October 22, 2002).   Other studies have linked everything from the rise of staphylococcus infections to the spread of pneumonia to unsafe ratios for direct-care RNs.

“Pennsylvania’s nursing shortage is getting worse by the year,” said Senator Leach. “This law will guarantee patients safer care while creating conditions in our hospitals that will help retain and recruit RNs. Ratios reduce costly medical errors, hospital infections, and the significant expense of replacing the increasing numbers of RNs who leave the bedside due to unsafe staffing conditions.”

An increase of one patient per RN leads to a 23percent increase in burnout and 15percent increase in job dissatisfaction. Meanwhile, the cost to replace an RN is about $42,000 for each general medical/surgical unit RN, and $64,000 to replace each specialty RN. (The Journal of the American Medical Association, October 23/30, 2002.)

“Safe staffing is our most pressing issue.  While we’re ahead on the issue because we have a union, staffing issues hurt the whole profession,” said Rose Szybka, RN, who works at Butler Memorial Hospital in Butler, PA. “Safe staffing legislation is necessary before more harm is done to patients, and more RNs leave the profession.”

“Now that the facts have been established that California’s safe staffing bill has helped reverse the nursing shortage in California, Pennsylvanians should have to wait no more,” said Teri Evans, RN, who works at Crozer Chester Medical Center. “What has been won in California should be won in Pennsylvania for the sake of safe patient care.”

A similar RN -to-patient ratio bill, House Bill 147, has already been introduced in the Pennsylvania House by Representative Tim Solobay (D-48).