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Federal minimum nurse-to-patient ratios will:

 Protect patients and save lives
A growing body of evidence confirms that inadequate staffing is leading to tens of thousands of preventable injuries, infections, and deaths in hospitals each year.

Minimum nurse-to-patient ratios will reduce the risk of medical errors and complications by ensuring that nurses have enough time to properly carry out treatments prescribed by physicians, continually assess and monitor patients—and modify interventions accordingly, as well as provide education to help speed recovery and prevent relapses.

 Create a safety net in all hospitals
Left to their own devices, hospitals will continue to respond to the cost-cutting pressures of managed care by staffing at barebones levels—even though it jeopardizes the safety of patients.

Establishing minimum staffing ratios by unit in all hospitals will guarantee a safe level of care for patients, who are not always able to choose their hospital or transfer to another if they are not satisfied with their care.

 Solve the growing shortage of nurses
Understaffed and unable to provide the highest quality care, more and more nurses are refusing to work in hospitals. In fact, only 1.3 million of the nation’s 2.7 million licensed nurses are working in hospitals today. The only way to solve the shortage is to improve the staffing levels that are driving them away.

 Reduce the cost of medical errors and high turnover rates
Understaffing is taking such a huge financial toll on our health care system that Congress can’t afford not to set safe staffing standards.

The Institute of Medicine estimates the national cost of preventable medical errors and complications to be $17 billion a year. In addition, the high turnover rate associated with understaffing dramatically increases hospitals’ expenditures for recruitment, training, overtime, and temporary and agency staff.

Because it costs a hospital roughly twice as much to replace a nurse as it does to retain one, safe staffing levels will save money as well as lives.