EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated to include clarifications about nurse-ratio hours, nurse-advocate goals and the identity of legislative supporters.
Nursing facilities would need to limit the number of residents a registered nurse cares for, under a recently proposed Pennsylvania House measure.
The bill was introduced recently by Rep. Gene DiGirolamo (R-Bucks County). Members of the state’s House Health Committee have been been hearing from both sides of healthcare equation to determine if stricter nurse-to-resident ratios are warranted, Erie News Now reported Tuesday.
Nursing facility and hospital administrators have expressed concerns about staffing mandates in a time when providers are already experiencing workforce shortages. Industry advocates noted that new federal guidelines already require skilled care facilities to assess the needs of actual residents being served, and to staff appropriately.
“Blanket mandates related to staffing increase regulatory burdens that are already threatening providers to such an extent that some are considering closing,” Adam Marles, president and CEO of LeadingAge PA, told McKnight’s.
Rapp said she will be cautious in weighing those concerns before the bill moves forward.
“Legislators know a little about a lot,” she said. “We are not necessarily experts in these situations. So, I’m reading the bill and looking at the side of what the nurses want.”
The bill would set nures-to-patient ratios for acute-care hospital settings, with variances among departments. Nurse advocates are also pushing for an increase in the safe-staffing standards for nursing homes, which currently require 2.7 direct-care hours per resident day, up to to 4.1 hours. They are also asking that Medicaid increases for nursing homes go directly toward bedside care, for more staff, training programs and higher wages. Eric Kiehl, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, said his organization is weighing what’s being proposed.
“We’re still evaluating the potential impact of this legislation, and as always, we’re open to working with the chair of the Health Committee on any bill that may positively or negatively impact nursing homes and their residents,” he told McKnight’s.
Pennsylvania is not alone in its attempts to mandate minimum nurse-to-patient ratios. A state senator in Kentucky is reportedly proposing enacting minimum staff counts as a condition for SNFs to obtain state operating licenses. And last year, Massachusetts voters rejected a ballot question that would have required hospitals to staff a certain number of nurses for each patient.
