Dive Brief:
- Massachusetts nurses have thrown their support behind state legislation that would require lower nurse-patient ratios. The Massachusetts Nurses Association and National Nurses United are campaigning for the new measure.
- Hospitals in the state say the mandated nurse-patient ratios will prove very costly. For example, Baystate Health's Steven Bradley said the bill would cost his hospital $20 million, and require it to find 200 nurses to add to the payroll, according to Fierce Healthcare.
- If the bill doesn't pass, it will probably go to a ballot initiative in November.
Dive Insight:
This is one of those perennial clashes you'll always see underway in health care. Hospital administrators will never be particularly pleased at the idea of staffing up on an expensive resource, and nurses will never be happy with the idea of working in an understaffed environment. If someone could magically produce ratios that everyone agreed upon, this might not be a source of frequent conflict, but that's not likely to happen.