The New York State legislature approved measures that will require that hospitals and nursing homes meet minimum staffing levels of nurses and other health
Pandemic Fuels Passage Of NY Bills To Prevent Understaffing In Hospitals And Nursing Homes
arrow A medical employee steps outside of an emergency room at Elmhurst Hospital Center, April 4th, 2021 Mary Altaffer/AP/Shutterstock
After years of languishing in the state legislature, measures to create minimum staffing requirements for hospitals and nursing homes passed both houses on Tuesday.
Nurses say short staffing is a long-time issue, and research shows that the shortcoming can worsen patient outcomes and mortality rates. The problem gained new attention and urgency as overburdened clinical staff struggled to keep patients alive during the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation includes significant changes that appease powerful hospital lobbyists who have historically opposed staffing mandates.
WAMC s Jim Levulis speaks with AARP New York State Director Beth Finkel.
Finkel: Right now, it s got a 3.5 hourly rate [per patient]. But the CMS recommends 4.1. So we feel like New York state needs to look at the threshold that CMS has suggested for nursing homes. We re also concerned because they lump together RNs [registered nurses] and LPNs [licensed practical nurses] together in that ratio. And we know that if registered nurses are giving more services directly to the patient that the quality of care for the patient shoots way up. So we need to be looking at that.
Levulis: Now overall, have the investigations into New York s handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes, including death data, made nursing home residents and their families question the safety of the facilities and that the overall nursing home system has residents’ health and needs as the top priority?
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On April 25, hundreds of people gathered in Mitchel Square Park in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City for a rally in solidarity with the Asian community, after Yao Pan Ma, a Chinese man collecting cans for recycling was brutally attacked and hospitalized just a couple of days earlier.
The rally’s organizers included the New York State Nurses Association, MayDay Space, Asians 4 Abolition, BAYAN USA, Word Up Community Bookshop and the ANSWER Coalition. The community showed up to protest the anti-Asian violence perpetrated not only by civilians, but also by the police, corporate media, and the U.S. armed forces abroad.