November/December 2004 Inside… Single payer health care: Saving billions by cutting waste...2 Executive director’s column: THE NEWSLETTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS NURSES ASSOCIATION www.massnurses.org VOL. 75 NO. 9 Raising the bar ............................3 Members approve five-year plan and modified Monitoring the BORN ..................3 Labor Relations News: dues funding at annual business meeting Good Samaritan Med Center ....4 After more than three hours of intense Cambridge Hospital ..................4 debate and discussion among the member- ship gathered at the annual business meeting Northampton VNA.....................4 of the MNA in Boston, a vote was cast in favor of a five-year plan with a modified dues Labor Education: increase. The plan and funding to support Past practice explained ...............5 the plan is designed to position the MNA as the voice on health care in Massachusetts, MNA election results ...................5 as well as a model of professional and union activism. MNA on Beacon Hill: The debate focused on the details of a dues Candidates backed by MNA increase that was needed to fund the vision win big on Election Day.............6 for the organization that was put forth by the RNs on the campaign trail.........7 Board of Directors, which was based on the input of the members. It had been 10 years Inside Boston’s Hyatt Harborside Hotel during the MNA’s annual business meeting where Health & Safety: since the last increase in MNA dues. Below is members approved the five-year plan and a modified program for dues funding. Avian flu ....................................8 a table detailing the proposed dues increase, along with the final version passed by the vision,” said Karen Higgins, RN and presi- to the dues proposal, the timeline for imple- Annual report ............................8 membership following a series of amend- dent of the MNA. “There was a healthy debate mentation of the five-year plan will need to be Alliance with OSHA, Mass.........9 ments presented by the members at the over how to structure a dues increase that in reworked based on the timing of the changes business meeting. the end meets the needs of the membership. in dues. The Board will reconfigure the plan Honoring a fallen nurse .............11 accordingly. Proposed Dues Increase Approved Dues Increase In addition to the five-year plan and dues Medical mission to Dominican increase, Higgins emphasized an earlier Dues increase to $55/month in Jan. 2005 Dues increase to $45/month in Jan. Republic ....................................11 decision by the Board to convene a task 2005; to $50/month on June 30, 2005 force to explore the idea of lesser dues for Convention 2004 photos ......12-13 Dues increase to $65/month in July 2006 Dues increase to $65/mo. in July 2006 members working minimal hours, and/or Annual cost of living increase of 3 percent Cost of living increase deleted nurses who are not members of a collective MNA annual awards .............14-16 beginning in Jan. 2008 bargaining unit. The task force will meet over the coming months to explore options MNF scholarships .....................16 for alternative dues structures for these situ- “We were pleased that the membership It is now up the organization to implement ations, which will then be considered by the Study shows increasing endorsed the vision laid out by the Board and follow through with the vision we have Board and brought before the membership at hospital charges ........................17 of Directors and that they recognized the put forth.” need to provide the funding to support that Higgins added that with the modifications See Meeting, Page 20 Peer support for nurses.............17 MNA position statement on the magnet recognition program for nursing Continuing education............18-19 services and other consultant-driven quality improvement projects Benefits corner ..........................19 In recent years, registered nurses, health the implementation of new laws to regulate tion “Magnet Nursing Services Recognition” MNA member benefits ..............24 care providers, citizens and policy makers RN staffing ratios in hospitals. on hospitals that are able to pass a lengthy have become increasingly concerned with For its part, the hospital industry has credentialing inspection by a team of survey- the quality and safety of nursing care in fought any attempt to impose legally enforce- ors, in very similar fashion to JCAHO’s (Joint America’s hospitals. A number of influential able requirements for improving care, and Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare reports and studies show a dramatic rise in instead has been promoting voluntary solu- Organizations) inspection and credentialing medical errors, poor patient outcomes and tions and strategies to deal with this crisis. process. an alarming number of preventable patient The latest of these is the Magnet Recogni- Magnet evaluation criteria are based on deaths directly attributable to inadequate tion Program, which is run by the American quality indicators and standards of nursing RN staffing levels; poor RN-to-patient Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)—a practice as defined in the ANA's Scope and ratios; dangerous working conditions, such for-profit subsidiary of the American Nurses Standards for Nurse Administrators (1996). The For the latest as the use of mandatory overtime; dangerous Association. In fact, the Magnet program is criteria are similar to JCAHO standards. developmentsFor the latest administrative practices, such as utiliz- yet another in a series of consultant-driven To obtain Magnet status, health care orga- impacting nurses, ing unlicensed personnel to provide care “quality improvement” projects the industry nizations must apply and pay a fee to the developments that only RNs should provide; and floating has proposed and implemented in the last ANCC; submit extensive documentation impactingvisit the nurses, nurses to units where they are ill-prepared decade, including total quality manage- that demonstrates their compliance with MNAvisit Web the site, to practice competently and safely. ment (TQM), shared governance and patient the ANA standards; and undergo an onsite www.massnurses.orgMNA Web site, These conditions have stimulated intense focused care. None of these programs have evaluation to verify the information in the www.massnurses.org debate within the health care community succeeded in their intended goal, and most documentation submitted and to assess the as to how to deal with this crisis. The vast resulted in fostering the conditions that presence of the “forces of magnetism” within majority of front-line nurses—nine out of 10 have created the crisis nurses and patients the organization. in Massachusetts and eight out of 10 nation- now face. According to the ANCC, as of July 30, ally—who deliver patient care are calling for The Magnet program confers the designa- See Magnet, Page 10 Page 2 Massachusetts Nurse November/December 2004 November/December2004 Massachusetts Nurse Page 3 Nurses’ guide to single-payer reform Study shows $245 billion savings from cutting insurance and drug waste Massachusetts Jobs with Justice released versal health insurance plan. “This report a report on Oct. 7 showing that $245 billion Percentage of uninsured covered by eliminating waste addresses a possible solution by showing is wasted on private insurance red tape and that streamlining administrative waste and 160% protecting drug company super-profits each 175% reforming drug pricing rules would allow year. The study concludes that by providing everyone in Massachusetts to have accessible insurance more efficiently and making drug and affordable health care.” companies sell in a more competitive market, 125 “So many politicians say they support the the savings could be used to provide secure, 88% concept of health care for all, but then hide affordable health care for all. 67% behind the question of how a universal plan The report, Waste Not, Want Not: How Elimi- 75 would be financed,” said Paul Cannon, presi- nating Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry dent of Teamsters Local 122, and co-chair of Waste Could Fund Health Care For All in Mas- Jobs with Justice’s Health Care Action Com- sachusetts, focuses on how three reforms to 25 5% mittee. “Our study shows that health care for the current health care system could prevent all isn’t an economic problem; it’s a question billions of dollars in waste and yield enough Eliminating Competitive drug Ending insurance Total covered of political will. We’re building a movement savings to guarantee secure and affordable to force politicians to stand up to the special insurance waste market subsidies Source: CEPR, 2004 health care for all. Specifically: interests and pass laws for secure and afford- The fragmented system of nearly 1,300 able health care.” private health insurance companies creates patent protections that discourage com- changes to Medicare could save $83.6 Former state senator and gubernatorial unnecessary red tape and administrative petition and guarantee super profits. If billion—or $11 billion a year—over the candidate Warren Tolman led a special forum waste. The national Medicare program has the federal government paid for all of next eight years. on Oct. 10 at the Old West Church in Boston a proven track record of providing insurance the R&D, it could eliminate the patent • In Massachusetts, reversing the to highlight the failures of the current health at slightly less than one-tenth the cost of pri- protections, encourage competition and changes to Medicare could save $220 care system and present visions for change vate plans. Adopting Medicare’s standard of generic drugs, and save $140 billion in million—enough to insure another based on the report’s findings. efficiency, and improving and expanding it health care costs every year. 88,000 state residents. Waste Not, Want Not is based on an analy- to cover everyone, would save more than $94 • In Massachusetts, this prescription Together, these savings would be more sis of government census and economic data billion on health care every year.