WHEREAS:
Unsuccessful attempts to address critical staffing issues in health care, including, without limitation, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants and ancillary support staff, have resulted in increased costs in health care and have placed patients' and long-term care residents’ lives at risk. Implementing safe staffing in all hospitals, long-term care facilities and other health care institutions is part of making health security a fundamental human right, a guarantee and entitlement to humane health care for all people, providing health care services equally to all individuals according to uniform standards of care; and
WHEREAS:
Medical errors in hospitals, long-term care facilities and other health care institutions result in approximately hundreds of thousands of patients dying each year and cost taxpayers and consumers approximately $20 billion a year; and
WHEREAS:
Studies and research have demonstrated that increasing direct patient health care workers' workload by even one patient increases the risk of patient mortality; and
WHEREAS:
Medical errors increase when health care workers are assigned higher volumes of patients. Public reporting systems and staffing committees are not enough. Mandatory staffing ratios not only improve patient outcomes but increase satisfaction with both patients and staff. Staffing ratios create a measurable process by which health care systems are held accountable; and
WHEREAS:
Mandating minimum patient ratios saves lives and improves patient care outcomes. In 1999, California became the first state in the nation to establish minimum RN-to-patient ratios, resulting in a reduction of patient deaths; and
WHEREAS:
In an industry that has seen more and more hospitals, long-term care facilities and other health care institutions convert to for-profit status, increasing the viewpoint of prioritizing profits over patients, coupled with the onset of the pandemic, health care workers continue to suffer burnout and fatigue, and mandatory staffing standards can cure this problem only at the cost of limiting profits.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
AFSCME calls on state legislatures to implement and provide for the enforcement of mandatory staffing ratios that account for patient acuity, requiring all hospitals, long-term care facilities and other health care institutions to adopt mandatory staffing ratios to include, without limitations, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants and support staff.
SUBMITTED BY:
Craig A. Ford, President
Charmaine Morales, Secretary-Treasurer and Delegate
NUHHCE/AFSCME Local 1199
Pennsylvania