BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - Dozens of nurses rallied outside of ECMC on Wednesday in a push for the "Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act", a proposed law that would increase nurse to patient ratios in nursing homes statewide.
The nurses were critical of the hospital in Buffalo for their lack of staffing.
"When you have adequate staffing, that saves lives," Kena Collins, an ECMC nurse and a board member of the state nurses association, said. "Your mother, your father, your aunts and uncles, are laying up in this hospital...You want a qualified nurse that has experience. You don't want a nurse that is burnt out, stressed, has anxiety about coming to work...This hospital has decided to put profits over patients and nurses."
ECMC operates Terrace View Long Term Care Facility, a nursing home that has an overall rating of four stars out of five from Medicare. The government also gave it the same rating for staffing levels, though Steve Bailey, a nurse at the facility, said that the rating is only determined by meeting the facility staffing requirement.
"That minimum has declined," he said. "That number keeps going down and down. If you keep lowering the target and the goal line, of course you're going to meet your targets."
ECMC provided WBEN the following statement.
"All nursing homes in our region have been challenged in hiring staff. ECMC's Terrace View Long-Term Care facility has offered financial incentives and signing bonuses as they actively recruit for almost 50 open positions at the facility. Terrace View is currently rated 4 out of 5 stars from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for staffing, exceeding national and state averages for nursing care for Terrace View residents."
The bill is currently in committee and similar efforts to pass the bill since 2009 have failed.
