PATIENT RATIOS SET FOR JAN. 1.Byline: Staff and Wire Services California hospitals will be required to meet new nurse-to-patient staffing ratios starting at the end of this year, including strict requirements for burn and post-surgery patients, under regulations unveiled Tuesday by state health regulators. The regulations stem from a 1999 law that made California the first in the nation to mandate nurse-to-patient ratios for hospitals. The Department of Health Services Department of Health Services may refer to:
Nurses said the regulations, which will be phased in starting in 2004, are a sensible way to improve patient care and working conditions for nurses. But hospital officials say the ratios will worsen wors·en tr. & intr.v. wors·ened, wors·en·ing, wors·ens To make or become worse. worsen Verb to make or become worse worsening adjn the state's current nursing shortage and warn it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to implement. ``Hospitals are going to comply with them, but there could be unintended consequences For the "Law of unintended consequences", see Unintended consequence Unintended Consequences is a novel by author John Ross, first published in 1996 by Accurate Press. of hospitals either turning away patients and complying with the ratios, or violating the ratios and providing patient care,'' said Jan Emerson, vice president of external affairs for the California Healthcare Association. Most hospitals in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. did not return calls Tuesday afternoon, but two that did - Encino-Tarzana Hospital and Glendale Adventist Medical Center Glendale Adventist Medical Center is located in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, California. It was founded in 1905. Glendale Adventist Medical Center is a sister institution of Loma Linda University Medical Center and is a part of the Seventh-day Adventist hospital system. - said they were nearly in compliance the proposed regulations. Neither provided exact data on staffing ratios. ``We will be in compliance on Jan. 1,'' said Mitch The name Mitch can mean:
Gwen Matthews, senior vice president for clinical services and chief nurse executive at Glendale Adventist, said the hospital would phase in more nurses toward the end of this year in time to meet the new ratio requirements. Matthews said achieving compliance was a big challenge because the hospital is in expansion mode and struggling to find nurses to staff new beds. Karen McDaniel, a nurse in the Encino-Tarzana Hospital's labor and delivery unit and head of the union chapter at the hospital, said nurses across California celebrated the passage of the regulations. The DHS DHS Department of Homeland Security (USA) DHS Department of Human Services DHS Department of Health Services DHS Demographic and Health Surveys DHS Dirhams (Morocco national currency) estimates the new ratios will cost hospitals $422 million in 2004, $652 million in 2005 and more than $956 million in 2008, when all of the ratios have been put in place. Currently, the state sets nurse-to-patient ratios for intensive and critical care units, operating rooms operating room n. Abbr. OR A room equipped for performing surgical operations. , nurseries and acute respiratory care wards. The new regulations will expand the required ratios to the rest of the hospital as well. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion