Baystate Franklin Medical Center is saying the “Question 1” ballot initiative on nurse staffing will cost $3.3 million annually, while a newly released study by a Boston College professor says it won’t cost anything. The question of actual cost is the latest development over the Massachusetts Nurses Association ballot initiative, as the conversation around it ramps up ahead of the November election.
Voters this fall could make Massachusetts only the second state in the country to limit the number of patients that hospital nurses can help at one time. Question 1 would create legal ratios based on the type of patients that nurses are dealing with. Nurses aiding women during birth and up to two hours after, for instance, would be limited to one patient.
Nurses at Michigan Medicine, the medical arm of the University of Michigan, have filed a federal lawsuit against the university, alleging it isn't letting them wear pro-union buttons and T-shirts. The filing comes as the 5,700 union nurses are in the midst of voting on whether to authorize a strike as contract talks between the two sides have stalled.
Officials with Western Massachusetts hospitals on Tuesday predicted passage of a statewide referendum requiring a fixed ratio of nurses to patients would cost hospitals upwards of $40 million locally, and would likely lead to a reduction of services for patients, and could even threaten the ability of smaller hospitals to remain open.
At Fairmount Public School, care from a nurse is possible. Even when they’re several hours away. Specialty equipment and iPads allow Melissa Nelson, R.N., to monitor the health of students and faculty at the Fairmount, North Dakota, school. Nelson is one of a team of nurses based out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
A coalition to defeat a ballot question that would mandate specific nurse staffing ratios in hospitals has raised and spent more than $7 million, with two months still to go before the election. The Massachusetts Nurses Association has spent $4.7 million so far advocating on behalf of the November 2018 ballot question.