PUBLISHED 7:52 PM ET May. 04, 2021 PUBLISHED 7:52 PM EDT May. 04, 2021 SHARE Two highly anticipated bills that would establish safer staffing levels in both hospitals and nursing homes have now cleared the New York State Legislature with bipartisan support. Nancy Hagans, a critical care registered nurse at Maimonides Medical Center, says this pandemic exposed what many people already knew. “We were at a deficit to begin with,” Hagans said. “Now, we had the pandemic and as nurses, we had to do what we needed to do in order to care for our patients and save as many lives as we can. And I truly believe, and we truly believe as nurses, if we had enough staffing, if we had a nurse-patient ratio, we could have saved more lives.”