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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
02/22/2025 08:16 AM
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?SPick=20250&chamber=H&cosponId=45056
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House of Representatives
Session of 2025 - 2026 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: January 16, 2025 09:33 AM
From: Representative Thomas L. Mehaffie, III and Rep. Kathleen C. Tomlinson, Rep. Bridget M. Kosierowski, Rep. Tarik Khan
To: All House members
Subject: Patient Safety Act
 
In the near future, Representative Tomlinson, Representative Kosierowski, Representative Khan, and I will reintroduce legislation to establish safe patient limits under the care of individual nurses in Pennsylvania hospitals. This will be known as the Patient Safety Act.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses have risked their lives to safeguard our communities, yet they are increasingly placed in incredibly dangerous situations with higher patient loads as staffing levels continue to drop. At a time when our healthcare system faces unprecedented challenges, the need for the Patient Safety Act is more urgent than ever.

The problem this bill is designed to fix is fundamentally a patient safety issue: over the last several decades there has been a persistent and wide variation in nurse-to-patient ratios in acute care hospitals that has led to poor outcomes for patients. While many Pennsylvania hospitals have safe nurse-to-patient ratios, more than half are significantly above acceptable limits, some dramatically so.

Decades of research has shown that when nurses have too many patients, it leads to numerous negative patient outcomes, such as: patient falls, delays in medication, medical errors, hospital acquired infections, increased length of stay, increased readmissions, failure to rescue, and increased levels of mortality.

Yet, there is currently no objective standard in the regulations for the number of patients that an RN can care for at a time. Such clear minimum safety standards exist in child care, nursing homes, and other venues – but not in acute care hospitals.

The Patient Safety Act will establish such an objective minimum safety standard in Pennsylvania hospitals. It would establish minimum safe nurse-to-patient ratios based on the acuity of the patients in each unit.

The Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania has estimated that implementing such a standard within Pennsylvania, as proposed in HB106 from the 2023-2024 legislative session, would have transformative impacts on patient care. For example, in med-surg units alone:
  • 1,155 hospital deaths would be prevented annually.
  • 771 hospital readmissions would be avoided annually.
  • Length of stay would be reduced by 34,919 days annually.
These improvements in patient care would also generate significant cost savings for hospitals:

  • Reducing length of stay by nearly 35,000 days annually would save approximately $93 million.
  • Hospitals would also realize additional savings from improved patient satisfaction, fewer readmission penalties, reduced staff turnover, and lower rates of nurse burnout.
Other states have already adopted similar measures with positive outcomes. States where patient safety standards have been implemented show that legislated staffing standards work. That’s why 90% of the public supports mandatory staffing standards, and momentum is growing to enact them in other states. A safe staffing bill much like ours in Pennsylvania has recently passed in Oregon, and similar legislation has been pending in Georgia, Illinois, Maine, and New Jersey.

Nurses are doing everything they can to protect Pennsylvania’s patients, but without minimum staffing standards in place, patients are endangered and our nurses are fleeing the bedside. It is time for us in the legislature to take action to protect our communities. Please consider cosponsoring the Patient Safety Act to ensure safer, higher-quality healthcare for all Pennsylvanians.

On June 28, 2023, HB106 passed the PA House with a vote of 119-84.

This legislation was previously introduced as HB106 in the 2023-2024 session by Rep. Tomlinson and myself, along with robust co-sponsor support from MEHAFFIE, TOMLINSON, KOSIEROWSKI, KHAN, CIRESI, FIEDLER, FLEMING, HOGAN, HOHENSTEIN, ISAACSON, KIM, MATZIE, NEILSON, PROBST, RABB, SANCHEZ, SMITH-WADE-EL, SOLOMON, WARREN, MULLINS, DONAHUE, KRAJEWSKI, BENHAM, FREEMAN, HARKINS, ZABEL, KINKEAD, ORTITAY, OTTEN, KENYATTA, GALLOWAY, CEPEDA-FREYTIZ, McNEILL, GIRAL, O'MARA, WEBSTER, BOYLE, BOROWSKI, KINSEY, T. DAVIS, HANBIDGE, YOUNG, RADER, BRIGGS, LABS, CURRY, MUNROE, PASHINSKI, CERRATO, WAXMAN, GREEN, PARKER, CONKLIN, STEELE, SIEGEL, KULIK, BULLOCK, STURLA, SAPPEY, SHUSTERMAN, KAUFER, KRUEGER, GUENST, DALEY, BRENNAN, BURGOS, MADDEN, FRIEL, MALAGARI, MAYES, N. NELSON, D. MILLER, GALLAGHER, MERSKI, PISCIOTTANO, BELLMON, SCOTT, DELLOSO, KAZEEM, ROZZI, HADDOCK, MADSEN, CEPHAS, DEASY, ABNEY, WHITE, MARSHALL, FLICK, MAJOR, DELOZIER, EMRICK, McANDREW, D. WILLIAMS, SALISBURY, GERGELY, PIELLI, VITALI, MARKOSEK, TAKAC, FRANKEL, INNAMORATO, HOWARD, SCHWEYER, HILL-EVANS, SAMUELSON, DAWKINS, GUZMAN and RYNCAVAGE.



Memo Updated: February 18, 2025 11:33 AM