I have been losing sleep over the possibility that Proposition One (mandated nurse ratios in hospitals) might become law. I want to explain why you should be losing sleep as well.
There is no question that nurses work hard, are a vital part of the hospitals functioning, and often subject to stresses that would be extreme in any other context. As a medical professional for 45 years I have been sincerely grateful for all that they do. Much of their stress comes from a widely recognized shortage of nurses. Yet the law does not solve the problem of overall shortage. Even if money were no object, hiring and training those additional nurses would take years.
Ask yourself, during those years of hiring, where will the patients go? Isn’t it obvious that patients will end up in the only place in the hospital without mandated ratios? In other words: the waiting room. Reason it through yourselves. Of course the effect of a new law will be to dramatically increase the waiting times for patients to be seen. Patients already complain of long waits in the ED. What will things be like if waiting times double? or triple? or worse.
The other part of this issue is the increased cost, which has the potential to bankrupt many local and community hospitals. As a result there will unquestionably be a loss of services. The most likely event in Athol will be the closure of hospital beds, in whole or part. In either case patients will be forced to be transferred, with all the attendant inconvenience and risk. We might well end up with a pure independent ER, without an attached set of hospital beds. Is this really what you want?
And to further punish us is the long term fact that the additional billion dollars in nursing salaries will of course come back to all of us in the form of higher taxes and increased insurance bills.
Within the hospital setting in Athol there is widespread fear of Proposition One. Despite the Massachusetts Nursing Association internal poll, ninety percent of all the nurses I spoke with in Athol are actively in opposition to Proposition One and plan to vote NO in November. They fear the closure of services, the angry waiting patients, the deterioration of patient care, and the possible loss of their jobs.
Shouldn’t you?
I plan to vote NO on Proposition One and hope you all join me.
Peter Gorlin MD, PhD
ED Director
Athol Hospital