DENVER — Gov. Bill Ritter is signing two bills Tuesday that strengthen the voice
of Colorado nurses
in patient care. Joining Gov. Ritter at the ceremony will be members of the
SEIU Nurse Alliance of Colorado
who worked on the nursing task force that researched and crafted the
legislation.
Three SEIU RNs served on the
governor’s Nurse Workforce and Patient Care Task Force, which included 12
voting members from Colorado nurse advocacy and hospital organizations and 19
members overall.
“This is a great day for Colorado patients and nurses,” said SEIU Nurse Alliance
member Bernie Patterson, co-chair of the task force and an RN in the ambulatory
surgical unit at the Boulder
Medical Center.
“This legislation ensures that frontline nurses’ voices will be heard in critical
hospital decisions and that Coloradans will have even more information about the
strength of patient care at every hospital in the state.”
The two task force bills
being signed Tuesday are: SB 188, The Nurse-Hospital Pilot Program; and SB 196,
The Nurse-Hospital Transparency Bill.
- SB 188 creates a committee that will implement a
pilot program in which hospitals and direct-care nurses will collaborate
in determining best patient care practices for Colorado’s hospitals.
- SB 196 will add new nursing quality measures to
the existing Colorado Hospital Report Card. Quality measures such as RN
turnover rates and hours of RN care per patient day will be added to the
report card.