Begley explains mandatory staffing ratios disadvantages

In Becker’s Hospital Review, AONL CEO Robyn Begley explains the organization’s opposition to mandatory nurse-staffing ratios. While Begley stresses hospitals’ commitment to safe staffing, she says mandated ratios are “a static and ineffective tool” that does not ensure patient safety or quality. Begley, who also is senior vice president of workforce for the American Hospital Association, said older care models – that do not account for the impact of technology or interprofessional team care models – generally inform staffing ratios. Mandated ratios “limit innovation, reduce the flexibility needed to respond to patients’ changing care needs, and increase stress on a health care system already facing an escalating shortage of educated nurses,” she said. Last week, lawmakers reintroduced federal legislation that would mandate nurse-staffing ratios in hospitals. (Becker’s Hospital Review article, 3/30/23)