{"id":167681,"date":"2021-02-01T02:52:59","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T23:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/bill-would-require-minimum-staffing-in-nursing-homes-hospitals\/"},"modified":"2021-02-01T02:52:59","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T23:52:59","slug":"bill-would-require-minimum-staffing-in-nursing-homes-hospitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/bill-would-require-minimum-staffing-in-nursing-homes-hospitals\/","title":{"rendered":"#Bill would require minimum staffing in nursing homes, hospitals"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Bill would require minimum staffing in nursing homes, hospitals<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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New York\u2019s nursing homes and hospitals would be required to maintain adequate minimum staffing levels under a proposed state law gaining steam in the wake of a damning report linking understaffed facilities to high levels of coronavirus deaths.<\/p>\n

The push to pass the legislation has picked up since state Attorney General<\/a> Letitia James released a bombshell report last week packed with shocking findings \u2014 among them that two-thirds of nursing home coronavirus fatalities in the state were in facilities with the lowest or next-to-lowest staffing ratings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attorney general\u2019s report validates what we\u2019ve said all along: The nursing homes are understaffed,\u201d state Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), the bill\u2019s co-sponsor, told The Post.<\/p>\n

The \u201cSafe Staffing for Quality Care Act\u201d \u2014 introduced earlier this month, prior to James\u2019 report \u2014 would establish minimum standards for nurse-to-patient ratios under penalty of revocation of the facility\u2019s operating license.<\/p>\n

Under the law, one nurse could be assigned to no more than five acute-care patients in a nursing home, and facilities must have sufficient staffing to ensure every resident at least 2.8 hours of time with a certified nurse aide, 1.3 hours with a licensed practical nurse or registered nurse, and 0.75 hours with a RN.<\/p>\n

The legislation also establishes minimum nurse-to-patient ratios for varying hospital wards, including a one-to-one ratio in operating rooms, trauma units and maternity wards for advanced stages of labor.<\/p>\n

With respect to nursing homes, Kim observed that the facilities have long opposed staffing minimums because, as James\u2019 report noted, 65 percent operate as for-profit entities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why they lobby against staff\u00a0ratio requirements. They have to spend money,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to protect their bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Assemblyman
Assemblyman Ron Kim speaking in Albany on August 19, 2020.<\/figcaption>
Bernadette Hogan\/NYPost <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michael Balboni, the executive director of the New York Greater Health Care Facilities Association, noted that similar legislative pushes have gone nowhere in the past because the state refused to cough up additional funding to facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state will have to find a way to fund the minimum staffing program, which has always been a stumbling block in the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But a memo accompanying the legislation reviewed by The Post argues that raising the standard of care would pay for itself by reducing medical malpractice lawsuits and insurance costs.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx), who chairs the Senate health committee, credited James\u2019 audit with shining light on the disastrous consequences of insufficient staffing in healthcare facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Attorney General\u2019s report highlights how inadequate staffing levels at nursing homes directly resulted in higher infection rates and deaths,\u201d said Rivera, who is sponsoring the bill in his chamber of the state legislature. \u201cThis report will inform the policies and reforms that we must consider to improve patient and worker safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Richard Mollot, executive director of the New York Long Term Community Care Coalition watchdog group, \u201cThe AG\u2019s report confirms what we have long known: Though staffing is the most important indicator of a nursing home\u2019s safety, due to lax enforcement, most facilities fail to maintain sufficient staffing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe safe staffing bill is critical to ensuring that nursing homes invest in the staffing they need to provide the care they promise to residents and their families,\u201d added Mollot.<\/p>\n

Also cheering the bill and attorney general\u2019s report was Pat Kane, the executive director of the NYS Nurses\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AG\u2019s Report validates measures we have been advocating for throughout the pandemic and gives insight into what was happ<\/a>ening to nursing home patients sent to hospitals, to critical care units overflowing with COVID-19 patients,\u201d she said. \u201cThere, as at nursing homes, unsafe staffing levels meant higher patient mortalities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe essential lesson is that you cannot mandate increased capacity without guaranteeing safe staffing. The Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act provides a proactive solution based upon important retrospective, peer-reviewed studies,\u201d Kane added. \u201cIt would require each facility to implement individualized staffing plans that meet minimum requirements and are developed with input from frontline staff. The Act is the guarantee for all New Yorkers for safe, quality care and would bring to a system of care the equality so terribly lacking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not immedia<\/a>tely respond to a request for comment on the legislation.<\/p>\n

James\u2019 report served as a blistering rebuke of the administration\u2019s accounting of the coronavirus crisis with respect to nursing homes, finding that the death toll in the facilities may be more than 50 percent higher than officials claim.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Aaron Feis<\/em>\n <\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Bill would require minimum staffing in nursing homes, hospitals” New York\u2019s nursing homes and hospitals would be required to maintain adequate minimum staffing levels under a proposed state law gaining steam in the wake of a damning report linking understaffed facilities to high levels of coronavirus deaths. The push to pass the legislation has picked…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/nursing-home-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[91510,1545,70344,70423,2244,42160],"class_list":["post-167681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-1-31-21","tag-coronavirus","tag-coronavirus-in-ny","tag-hospitals","tag-nurses","tag-nursing-homes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}