CONNECTICUT PASSES HOSPITAL INFECTION DISCLOSURE MEASURE

After extensive lobbying by members of the healthcare division of AFT Connecticut and state federation staff, the Connecticut Legislature passed a bill requiring public disclosure of hospital-acquired infections. The legislation awaits the signature of Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R), who is expected to sign it.

The measure passed the state House unanimously on the final day of the legislative session. The bill had previously passed the state Senate unanimously in April.

The cost of these medical complications, in both dollars and lives, is mounting. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 90,000 Americans die from hospital-acquired infections every year—more than from auto accidents and homicides combined. Another 1.9 million nondeadly infections occur each year, for a total yearly cost of $5.9 billion. Connecticut’s state attorney general estimates that three people die each day in Connecticut due to hospital-acquired infections, while another 66 individuals acquire a nonfatal infection.

“This issue is about patient safety and a patient’s right to know,” says Sharon Palmer, president of AFT Connecticut.

Knowing which hospitals have high hospital-acquired infection rates can help consumers, employers and insurers make better choices about the quality of care they receive for their healthcare dollar.

“The movement for public disclosure is not about penalizing hospitals or making life difficult for them, it’s about creating  an incentive to change behavior,” said AFT Healthcare director Mary MacDonald during her testimony before a state public health committee in March.

Several studies have  found that lower nurse-to-patient ratios are strongly correlated with a decreased likelihood of hospital-acquired infection.

AFT Connecticut backed the bill in coalition with a number of consumer and healthcare quality groups, including Citizens for Economic Opportunity, Connecticare, the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety, the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, ConnPIRG and Healthcare for All.

Connecticut becomes the ninth state to require hospitals to track the number of patients who acquire infections while hospitalized, and joins six others in requiring hospitals to publicly release these numbers.

The Connecticut bill sets up an 11-member committee to develop, operate and monitor a mandatory reporting system for healthcare-associated infections. One representative on the committee must come from a labor organization representing hospital-based nurses.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s decision to penalize contractors who offer traditional defined benefit pensions and healthcare plans prompted a swift response on Capitol Hill. In April, the DOE said that for new contract employees, the department will only reimburse the costs of their “market-based defined contribution pension plans (similar to 401[k]) and market-based medical benefit plans.”

After the AFT alerted key lawmakers in Congress about the issue, senior Democrats in both the House and Senate sent letters to President Bush demanding that he rescind the policy. Such a regulation “is a direct attack on Americans’ retirement security” and “will erode the quality and comprehensiveness of healthcare benefits for employees, and could unfairly penalize the least healthy workers,” said Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in a May 5 letter signed by seven other senators.

The DOE’s action, which could set a precedent for other federal agencies to adopt similar restrictions not only for contracts but for thousands of grants, also prompted strong responses from the AFL-CIO and the AFT. The AFT is taking the lead in helping craft an appropriations prohibition in Congress to immediately stop implementation of DOE’s policy, as well as a separate bill to permanently prohibit all federal agencies from issuing similar regulations.

“It is outrageous and wrong that the Bush administration would use federal contracts and grants to undermine workers’ pensions and health insurance,” says AFT lobbyist Bill Cunningham. “We will fight to permanently prohibit this direct threat to working families.”

Nurses and healthcare workers know that extra hours come with the job and the profession but those long hours are a risk to workers and patients, Jemma
Marie-Hanson, a registered nurse and regional coordinator for the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), told lawmakers during a legislative hearing in May.

“I am here to appeal to you to pass the mandatory overtime bill,” said Hanson, who was among a number of PEF members who testified before a joint hearing of the New York State Assembly Standing Committees on Labor and Health in May on the dangers that mandatory overtime and short staffing pose to patients and nurses.

“Mandatory overtime legislation would protect patients from being cared for by overworked, exhausted caregivers who are more prone to making errors,” said Debbie Egel, a registered nurse at Creedmoor Addiction Treatment Center in Queens Village, N.Y.  Egel also pointed out that 10 states have regulations or have passed legislation to prohibit mandatory overtime for nurses (California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Texas, Washington and West Virginia).

“None of the hospitals in our border states have closed due to a lack of nurses,” said Egel. “As a matter of fact, the legislation has made management more accountable.”

Physical and mental toll
“Being mandated to work overtime can take a physical and mental toll on a nurse,” said Sandra Hammond, a 31-year veteran nurse who works at Stutzman Addiction Treatment Center in Buffalo, N.Y.

Every summer, there is a shortage of nurses at Stutzman. Last summer, Hammond and her co-workers logged more than 240 hours of mandatory overtime.

“We cut our sick time down to a bare minimum and reduced our vacation time. We missed family events and cancelled trips with our children,” said Hammond. “It was a time of being divided and exhausted.”

Icilda Innocent, a community mental health nurse at the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Developmental Disabilities Services Office, testified about a day she worked 24 hours straight.

“The emotional strain was crushing. I was taking care of totally helpless and dependent patients,” she told lawmakers. “When you work 16 or 24 hours in a row, you cannot think clearly. There is a constant fear in your mind that you will forget something or make a mistake.”

Domenic Campanella, a psychiatric nurse at the Capital District Psychiatric Center in Albany, N.Y., told lawmakers he has worked eight double shifts in a row. “After one overtime shift, I fell asleep while driving home. I woke up and was able to get back into my lane. If another car had been coming, there could have been tragic results.”

Campanella noted that most nurses just want more time with their families and want to feel alert and in control when on the job. “Nurses and patients need the protection this bill would provide if enacted into law.”