Today, America has a new healthcare law that is already expanding care to 32 million Americans, beginning to curb insurance company abuses, and addressing critical factors behind our nation's skyrocketing healthcare costs.
While some opponents of reform might be focused on seeing the new healthcare law fail, nurses will be doing what we've always done - getting to work to improve the health of our patients. And we're starting with improving the quality of care throughout our healthcare system.
This means getting America's healthcare system out of the ICU and into the recovery room. And it means having the tools at our disposal to improve the quality of care we deliver.
Quality care means patients are screened and diagnosed before they get really sick. It means providing a continuum of care - from the hospital to the home - so patients get better, faster. It means lowering hospitals readmission rates and preventing hospital acquired infections.
It means all of these things and much more, and the healthcare law supports the nursing profession in the following critical areas:
It improves access to care. When millions of Americans are getting their care in the emergency room it leads to episodic care, not comprehensive care, and that's costly. Part of the reason we spend more than 17% of GDP on healthcare is we spend it over and over again on the same costs without addressing root causes of illness. Access means nurses, doctors, and the entire patient care team will be able to deliver the necessary preventive care that will begin to improve our nation's health and lower overall costs.
It increases access to real time information about our patients by supporting the use of electronic medical records. Less paperwork and more accuracy regarding our patients health status means nurses can be up to speed on our patient's medical history, current prescriptions, and history of hospital visits in the click of a mouse. Nurses need to work to together with the entire patient care team to ensure that the use of electronic medical records truly improves the quality of care.
It creates a new commission to build not just the nursing workforce, but the entire healthcare workforce. With increasing patient demand on the horizon, we need a national plan to evaluate current shortages, as well as a roadmap that details how our current workforce needs to change and evolve to meet the demands of the future.
There's no doubt the healthcare law provides a strong foundation for nurses, healthcare workers and healthcare providers to continue to improve the quality of patient care. But America can do more. New research from the University of Pennsylvania proves that staffing ratios save lives.
The study found that if California's mandatory nurse-patient ratios had been in effect in Pennsylvania and New Jersey hospitals in 2006, those states would have seen 10.6% and 13.9% fewer deaths among general surgical patients. As Florida nurse Betsy Marville, RN said,
"This study validates what every bedside nurse knows: nursing care saves lives when the nurse has enough time to care for the patient. Hospitals must provide safe care, and safe care is impossible without safe staffing."
The nurses of SEIU are focused on reaching out to our patients to share how the new healthcare law can make a difference in their lives, advocating for safe staffing levels on the state level, and sharing the latest research on improving patient quality of care. In other words, we are right where we've always been: on the front lines delivering the care our patients need.
Here is a link to a FAQ page on National Health Insurance Legislation. At that page, you can also submit your personal questions on this.
