|
Testimony of Health Professionals and Allied Employees
Senate
Budget and Appropriations Committee
Assembly Budget Committee
March
13 and 14, 2007
Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to
address the Committee. My name is Jeanne Otersen and I am the Public
Policy Director for the Health Professionals and Allied Employees which
represents 12,000 nursing and healthcare workers in hospitals, long-term
care, research, home health and blood bank facilities across New Jersey.
Front-line caregivers witness first hand the
multiple crises facing our healthcare system: inadequate reimbursements
and charity care funding for our hospitals; rising numbers of
uninsured; insufficient funding to the NJDHSS to fulfill its current
oversight and surveillance responsibilities; the healthcare workforce
shortage and its root causes in unsafe staffing and working
conditions; and the failure of our regulatory agencies, due to either
lack of authority or resources, to step in, monitor and save failing
hospitals on behalf of our communities.
I will focus brief comments on four areas of
concern for our union, and attach more detailed comments for your review
on two areas: the saving of our hospitals, and the healthcare workforce
shortages due to unsafe working conditions. These comments are in the
context of an urgent need to address the growing number of uninsured and
underinsured in our state through more comprehensive programs, rather
than piece-meal and short-term fixes. .
1)
The NJDHSS current mission. Existing mandates require the NJDHSS
to oversee implementation of programs as diverse as use of safety needle
systems in our hospitals; quality of care inspections; and
development of programs to meet new challenges, such as infection
control due to emerging ‘superbugs’. We encourage this Committee to
examine additional funding for the NJDHSS to fulfill existing
surveillance and enforcement mandates such as-blood bank inspections;
implementation of the DHSS’ strategic plan to address “superbugs” such
as antibiotic resistant staph infections; and implementation of the
surveillance requirements under NJ’s Needle Safety law enacted 7 years
ago.
2)
NJDHSS initiatives on disparities in health care. The NJDHSS
has announced a serious new initiative addressing disparities in care
for at-risk and urban and minority populations. This mission includes a
range of programs, from increasing breast cancer screening for
underserved women to the development of a culturally competent workforce.
All of these initiatives require funding. Successful workforce
initiatives would need to include new recruitment methods in urban
areas; linkages between secondary educational institutions, community
colleges and healthcare institutions; and funding to support
recruitment, education and training. We encourage this committee to
develop funding for these programs or this program will not succeed.
3)
The fiscal crises facing NJ hospitals. From the recent number of
hospital bankruptcies, near bankruptcies, bond defaults, mergers or
closures, it is apparent that our state agencies lack the authority to
intervene before it is too late. Most recently, Hackensack
Hospital has just asked the NJDHSS for $60 million to help purchase
Pascack Valley Hospital, which is in danger of bond default due to its
high debt ratio. We urge this committee to set aside funding for cases
where state support can preserve and improve community health care, such
as the Hackensack-PVH deal, or in the case of Bayonne Medical Center.
We also urge our state legislature and Governor’s office to establish
transparency and accountability for its support, through the work of the
Governor’s Commission on the Rationalization of Healthcare. Attached
is an HPAE paper on approaches for supporting and saving our hospitals
while requiring transparency and accountability for public funding.
4)
Healthcare workforce shortages and hospital working conditions.
Studies continue to predict serious shortages in the coming years of
nurses and other health professionals. At the root of these shortages
are the physical stresses and dangers of the work, combined with an
aging workforce.
- Nursing and health care workers are among the
top ten occupations for work-related musculoskeletal injuries, in
most cases related to patient lifts and transfers.
- Health care leads all other sectors in the
incidence of nonfatal workplace assaults.
These hazards threaten the safety and health of patients as well as
caregivers, undermine our efforts to recruit and retain qualified staff,
and add millions of dollars in unnecessary healthcare expenditures.
Programs to reduce healthcare worker injuries
related to unsafe patient lifting and transfers and workplace violence
actually have minimal impact for our budget in the next three years,
but do provide long-term significant savings to our health care system.
For example, one estimate concludes that a 400-bed hospital would spend
$500,000 for a comprehensive safe lift program with all necessary
equipment. On the other hand, one preliminary review of the costs of
patient handling injuries at a university hospital in Connecticut
estimates $20,000 per injury of direct workers’ compensation costs and
additional indirect costs at five times the direct costs, for an average
of $120,000 per injury.
Another estimate puts the cost of back injuries to a 200-bed hospital at
$300-600,000 a year.
We would request that the Committee review with
legislative services the anticipated costs to state institutions and
developmental centers, which are covered by the safe patient handling
legislation (S1758/A3028) and violence prevention legislation
(S1761/A3027) currently pending.
Thank you for your attention to these issues.
##
|