Transcript:
There will likely be, probably layoffs of other employees, if a mandated government ratio went into effect.
And, what do you say about those, just the very issues they raise about patient safety because of the kinds of decisions they have to make?
Well hospitals obviously share the concern for patient safety. It is a top priority of hospitals to work on patient safety issues. And that is why we’ve been ranked very high on all the national rankings for hospitals. The Agency for Health Care Quality and Research ranked Minnesota hospitals and our health care delivery system here in Minnesota number one in the country. So we take patient safety just as seriously as the nurses do.
How much of the increased cost of this would be borne by the taxpayers through assistance programs rather than directly by insurers or patients?
Well because Medicaid payments are already underneath cost, it’s really hard to say how much will be borne by the taxpayers. We do have government owned and operated hospitals where clearly the taxpayers would have some risk involved. We haven’t really talked a lot about the cost, because, quite frankly, the real issue for us is keeping control locally. Because every hospital in the state is different. This is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The hospital in Ada has different care needs than, say, Mayo Clinic does. So we want to keep decisions locally controlled. There would be added costs, but that hasn’t been our number one talking point on this issue.
What recourse do these nurses have if they feel overworked or stressed to the point that they’re worried about being able to take care of the people?
You know, hospitals have what is called sort of a chain of command—ability to go to your nurse supervisor. These decisions and discussions happen every day in the hospital. Staffing is not static; it’s dynamic. A patient gets admitted, a patient gets discharged, every day staffing levels change. And nurses at the bedside go to their supervisors and say constantly, “I think we need another person here.” Or maybe discharges didn’t happen on schedule. This happens every day in the hospital. So we are meeting the needs of our patients.