When nurses care for two to three times the patients they can safely manage, the research shows the chances of preventable death, hospital acquired infections, and adverse outcomes increase.
Hospital CEOs are paid millions of dollars a year based on financial performance, not how well our mothers, fathers, newborns, and loved ones recover. When the average hospital executive makes 75 times more than the average worker at the bedside, but investments aren’t being made in direct patient care, something is wrong.
CWA healthcare workers are calling on our legislators to guarantee hospitals and nursing homes have the staffing they need for quality care.
Materials:
Senate Bill (S1032) / Assembly Bill (A2954)
Flyers: Call Your Assemblymember / Call Your Senator / Combined
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The Facts:
- Outcomes are better for patients when staffing levels meet those established in California, including an increase in lives saved, shorter hospital stays, and general improvement in quality care (Health Services Research, 2010).
- The odds of patient death increase by 7% for each additional patient the nurse must take on at one time (Journal of the American Medical Association, 2002).
- Safe nurse staffing reduces turnover in hospitals. When ratios are blown out of proportion, there is an increase in nursing turnover and a decrease in patient satisfaction. All of this increases the cost of care (Nursing Administration Quarterly, 2011).
- Nurse understaffing in hospital ICU increases the risk of infections like pneumonia, which not only lead to injury and death, but also cost the hospital significant amount of money. Hospital-acquired pressure ulcers alone have been estimated to cost $8.5 billion per year (Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research Pub. No. 04-0029, 2004).