[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 64 (Thursday, May 10, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S4835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REID:
  S. 863. A bill to require Medicare providers to disclose publicly 
staffing and performance in order to promote improved consumer 
information and choice; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Patient Safety 
Act. This legislation would require Medicare providers, such as 
hospitals and clinics, to publicly disclose staffing ratios and 
performance data in order to promote improved consumer information and 
choice.
  As we celebrate National Nurses Week, it is hard to ignore our 
nation's burgeoning nurse staffing crisis. As the baby-boom population 
ages and begins to require more nursing care, this shortage will only 
get worse. Inadequate staffing levels not only diminish nurses' working 
conditions, but they affect the quality of care patients receive. A 
recent report by the Department of Health and Human Services, Nurse 
Staffing and Patient Outcomes in Hospitals, confirmed that the number 
of nurses in a hospital makes a difference in the quality of care 
patients receive. One recommendation that came out of the study was the 
need to develop a system for routinely monitoring outcomes of hospital 
patient care sensitive to nursing and nurse staffing.
  The Patient Safety Act would help to accomplish this goal by 
requiring health care institutions to make public specified information 
on staffing levels, mix and patient outcomes. At a minimum, they would 
have to make public: the number of registered nurses providing direct 
care; the number of unlicensed personnel utilized to provide direct 
patient care; the average number of patients per registered nurse 
providing direct patient care; patient mortality rate; incidence of 
adverse patient care incidents; and methods used for determining and 
adjusting staffing levels and patient care needs.
  In addition, health care institutions would have to make public data 
regarding complaints filed with the state agency, the Health Care 
Financing Administration (HCFA) or an accrediting agency related to 
Medicare conditions of participation. The agency would then have to 
make public the results of any investigations or findings related to 
the complaint.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill that would 
improve the safety of patients by encouraging higher nurse to patient 
ratios, and ultimately help retain nurses in the face of a nationwide 
nursing shortage by encouraging safe work environments.
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