As nurses of Edward Hospital, Elmhurst Hospital and Linden Oaks Behavioral Health, we have deep and serious concerns about a legislative proposal, House Bill 2604, that would impose mandatory nurse staffing ratios at Illinois hospitals.
Throughout our careers as direct care hospital nurses, we have been honored to care for people during the most vulnerable times of their lives. We provide high-quality, compassionate care based on the specific conditions and individual needs of each and every patient.
However, this proposal would create a numerical, “one-size-fits-all” mandate for nurse staffing, overriding the expertise and judgment of nurses and other medical professionals at our hospitals. This rigid, by-the-numbers approach would severely limit our flexibility and decision-making to meet the unique and ever-changing healthcare needs of our patients.
We believe in flexible staffing that starts with assessing each patient’s condition and care needs, and allows our hospitals, with the input of direct care nurses, to match our nursing staff to the individual needs of our patients. This approach enables our hospitals to provide the right and appropriate staffing and care that patients need instead of being handcuffed by ratios that force us to add extra nurses in units where they are not needed.
That approach has been recognized as successful. Edward Hospital and Elmhurst Hospital have been designated as Magnet hospitals for nursing excellence by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. In addition, Edward, Elmhurst and Linden Oaks are regularly honored for safety, quality and patient care by national healthcare organizations.
Mandatory staffing ratios wrongly assume that patients in observation units need the same level of nursing care as patients in psychiatric units or hospital units with complex medical and surgical patients. Staffing ratios would require unnecessarily high staffing levels during the middle of the night when patients are sleeping and force highly trained nurses to perform tasks normally handled by support staff. It’s an ineffective and costly way to handle healthcare staffing decisions and it could impede our hospitals’ ability to provide the best possible patient care.
There is no conclusive evidence that nurse staffing ratios improve quality or patient outcomes, but they will drive up healthcare costs in Illinois by at least $2 billion a year, including more than $15 million a year for our hospitals.
If nurse staffing ratios are mandated for hospitals, we will be forced to reduce or close healthcare services and units. There will be times when hospitals will have to go on bypass (sending patients to other hospitals) during unpredictable periods of elevated need when there are not enough nurses in the emergency department to treat patients to comply with the ratio mandates.
We urge our state legislators to oppose House Bill 2604 – or any other legislative proposal – that would impose unworkable and costly nurse staffing ratios that won’t improve care for our patients.
Thank you,
Amy Bessett, RN, Linden Oaks Behavioral Health
Christa Beyer, RN, Edward Hospital
Jeanie Brown, RN, Elmhurst Hospital
Breighanna Carey, RN, Linden Oaks
Lisa Coen, RN, Edward Hospital
Suzanne Driscoll, RN, Linden Oaks
Danette Farrell, RN, Edward Hospital
Patty Foley, RN, Edward Hospital
Jeanette Gort, RN, Elmhurst Hospital
Neringa Haggerty, RN Linden Oaks
Kristin Hassett, RN, Elmhurst Hospital
Jaclyn Kuhn, RN, Elmhurst Hospital
Lindy Luchowski, RN, Linden Oaks
Colleen McKinney, RN, Edward Hospital
Jennifer Piloni, RN, Edward Hospital
Karen Plecki, RN, Edward Hospital
Christina Pogue, RN, Elmhurst Hospital
Amy Rowe, RN, Edward Hospital
Alexandrea Russell, RN, Elmhurst Hospital
Diana Scheck, RN, Elmhurst Hospital
Marie Spitzer, RN, Edward Hospital
Kathryn Toben, RN, Elmhurst Hospital
Denise Whitt, RN, Linden Oaks
Katie Wilson, RN, Edward Hospital