For Immediate Release
Thursday, June 11, 1998
Nurses from Across the Nation Converge on Capitol to Lobby for Patients' Bill of Rights
Stories Told of Nurses Fired When Reporting Critical Patient Care Problems
WASHINGTON —Nurses from around the country today called on Congress to pass legislation allowing them to report threats to patient safety and quality. The Emergency Mobilization of Nurses is a direct response to statements by House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-TX), who charged recently that nurses would use the "anti-retaliation" provision to make "false or dubious" accusations about quality-of-care problems and then demand higher pay.
"Health care workers must have the legal right to speak out without fear of retaliation when they know of dangerous conditions. This protects our patients — as well as the health care workers," said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), a former practicing nurse, who joined the nurses at the rally at the Capitol.
The nurses told stories (see attached, partial list of stories) about patients placed in jeopardy when untrained or insufficiently trained personnel performed nursing functions for which they were not trained or when critical care was delayed because of severely-cut staffing. Other examples of patient threats included early discharges resulting from cost-cutting pressures by managed care plans. Yet, when nurses reported these dangerous conditions, they faced intimidation, or were disciplined or fired. As a result, many nurses are afraid to speak out for their patients; when they do, there is no guarantee that their concerns will even be reviewed. Being able to help their patients is the only reason this legislation must be passed, they said.
The anti-retaliation provision (see attached) in the Patients’ Bill of Rights, H.R. 3605/S. 1890, would allow nurses and other health care professionals to report quality problems to their employers, public agencies, and private accreditation entities, and be protected from reprisals.
Armey, who opposes the patient protections in the bill, took aim at this provision in a recent letter to his House colleagues in which he said, "... The bill would give health workers a blank check to make accusations, even false or dubious ones, against their employers about the quality of patient care.
"Nurses in a hospital or doctors in a health plan could lodge complaints against the facility or the plan in order to generate negative publicity and thereby gain advantage in a ... reimbursement negotiation," Armey wrote.
Representatives Lois Capps (D-CA) and Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), who, like Johnson, were practicing nurses before being elected to Congress, also joined the nurses in calling for support of the Patients’ Bill of Rights and protections for nurses who advocate for their patients. Besides the list of health care "horror" stories, the nurses released a letter to Armey requesting a meeting to discuss the importance of this provision and the Patients’ Bill of Rights.
