Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital's Emergency Department to suffer under Question 1 

Proposal would critically impact emergency departments wait times and decrease access to care

BOSTON, MA – October 10, 2018 – Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital announced today their opposition to mandated nurse staffing ratios, citing the devastating impacts these rigid government requirements would have on their ability to provide emergency care to patients. Slated to be Question 1 on the ballot this November, these unnecessary and unfounded staffing requirements will dramatically increase emergency room wait times and delay life-saving services in hospitals across the state.

“Nobody schedules an emergency, and even if we are at capacity our multidisciplinary team of nurses, providers, PA’s and unit service techs in our emergency department are able to problem solve together and manage surge situations in real time,” states Robin Powell, BSN, RN, CEN, Director of Emergency Nursing for Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital’s emergency department.  “This new law would have us reach a point when we could not, by state law, care for any more patients, and our patients would have to wait in our waiting room for a nurse to be able to care for them, and patients with critical conditions, or even patients in pain or other conditions would wait for care to be initiated.”

The enormous costs and operational hurdles associated with the nurse staffing ballot question will set Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital back an estimated $2.5 million. 

There are no exceptions to this mandate, even in the event of an unexpected influx of patients – such as a multi-car crash or large fire. According to an independent study by MassInsight and BW Research Partners, mandated nursing staffing requirements would exacerbate the current nursing shortage, which is currently highest in Psychiatric units (7.8 percent) and in Emergency Departments (7.5 percent).

The ballot question would require that hospitals across the state, no matter their size or specific needs of their patients, adhere to the same rigid nurse staffing ratios within all patient care areas at all times. The petition does not make allowances for rural or small community hospitals, holding them to the same staffing ratios as major Boston teaching hospitals.

The ballot question is opposed by the American Nurses Association - Massachusetts, Emergency Nurses Association - Massachusetts Chapter, Organization of Nurse Leaders, Infusion Nurses Society, Massachusetts Association of Colleges of Nursing,  Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses’ Greater Boston Chapter, the Western Massachusetts Nursing Collaborative, the Massachusetts College of Emergency Physicians, the Massachusetts Medical Society, the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, the Massachusetts Council of Community Hospitals, the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals, and other healthcare and business leaders across the state.