Ritter signs measure to protect patient safety

Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 29, 2007 at midnight

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Gov. Bill Ritter took action to make patient safety a top priority today by signing the Health Care Worker Whistle-Blower Protection Bill and an executive order creating the Nurse Workforce and Patient Care Task Force.

After years of fierce battles between hospitals and staff over nurse-to-patient ratios, Ritter praised all sides for "sitting down and hammering out differences" to find common ground on patient care.

"The common ground here: Providing the best possible health care and consumer information to the people of Colorado, while also protecting the interests of our health care workers and our hospitals," Ritter said at a Capitol signing ceremony to the cheers and whistles of health-care workers.

It took five years to get pass House Bill 1133, which provides whistle-blower protection to nurses and other health-care workers who until now could be legally fired for reporting patient-safety concerns, said Rep. Morgan Carroll, who sponsored the bill with fellow Aurora Democrat, Sen. Bob Hagedorn.

Earlier efforts died in the legislature, and one was vetoed last year by then-Gov. Bill Owens.

"Thank you, God!" said Hagedorn, who added he was "getting a little fatigued" after four earlier attempts failed.

Carroll called it "a momentous victory for all patients and all citizens, for health care quality and safety in Colorado."

She stressed the law will cut down on some of the 98,000 preventable medical errors that annually occur in the United States.

"Medical errors are at this point the eighth-leading cause of death in the United States," she said.

After a Senate bill mandating hospitals develop nurse-to-patient ratios died this session, Ritter said his office worked and House Speaker Andrew Romanoff brought the Colorado Hospital Association and SEIU Nurse Alliance of Colorado together to forge agreement on the 21-member task force task force.

"It brings nurses and hospitals together to work collaboratively," Ritter said.

The panel's task will be finding the best way to inform consumers about nurse staffing levels at Colorado hospitals and to review national studies and models for insights about optimal nurse-patient ratios. Recommendations will be made to the governor and the legislature by year’s end.

"For patients, nurse staffing levels in hospitals can be a life or death issue," said Patty Stewart, a nurse at the Medical Center of Aurora. "Our patients count on us to speak up for them to ensure they get the care they’re supposed to."

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