Lawmakers urged to pass patient care bill

Wednesday, April 7, 1999 | 12:15 p.m.

But she wound up back at the southern Nevada hospital a few years later anyway, this time as a patient. Despite a successful operation for lung cancer, she stayed in the hospital nearly twice as long as the average patient who gets such surgery, she said. And for that she blames lack of nursing care.

"The nurses there were so short-staffed that I got almost no attention," Reyes told the Assembly Committee on Health and Human Services on Tuesday.

Reyes and other nurses and families of patients gathered to support AB586, which would attempt to codify and enforce what hospitals say they already do - staff every shift based on acuity, the level of needed patient care.

Opponents say the measure is redundant, would create unnecessary paperwork and would not improve care.

The bill, sponsored by Nevada Service Employees Union Local 1107 and the Nevada Nurses Association, originally had called for certain minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, determined by the State Board of Health, statewide.

Facing stiff opposition, its supporters agreed to a less controversial amendment. Now the measure would require only that each hospital have a written plan for staffing by acuity that is monitored closely by nurses, as well as hospital administrators.

Such plans already exist on paper in hospitals, but "unfortunately, having the policy does not mean that it is used," Nurses Association lobbyist Tricia Hunter testified.

The measure would require hospitals to release to the public information about patient care statistics, such as rates of postoperative problems like bedsores and patient falls.

It also would protect whistle-blowers who complain about inadequate staffing.

These protections already exist, the data are already collected, and staffing is already highly regulated, said Jim Wadhams, lobbyist for the Nevada Association of Hospitals and Health Systems. To illustrate his point he stacked up book upon book of rules governing hospitals.

Barbara Reynolds, assistant administrator of St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Washoe County, said her hospital's safety committee tracks patient falls, so there is no need for the state to collect that data.

Desert Springs Hospital nursing administrator Mary Chouffant stressed that acuity is "dynamic" and that the system the hospital has in place is designed to meet changing needs.

"A charge nurse can simply request additional staff. She also can close beds in the units," Chouffant said.