Worcester Business Journal

4 Worcester Business Journal | November 12, 2018 | wbjournal.com C E N T R A L M AS S I N B R I E F Voters deny nurse staffing ratios ballot initiative V E R BAT I M WPI aging study "There needs to be a lot more work before we get to a point of saying what the connection is." Carissa Perez Olsen, professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, who received a $421,000 grant to study the link between the body's lipids and aging The small guys "Big and small, there are a lot of organizations around here, and we've had some really nice success with the small guys. We were interested in doing some really fun things kind of outside of the box." Sam Hendler, Jack's Abby Craft Lagers co-founder, on a sponsorship agreement between the Framingham brewery and the Worcester Railers Hockey Club Economic strategy "This approved CEDS plan will lead to additional investment in Central Mass. and Southern Worcester County that will create jobs and expand the tax base within the 40-community CEDS region." Timothy Murray, Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, on the U.S. Economic Development Administration approving an economic strategy for South Worcester County focusing on manufacturing and health care H ospital administra- tors won in their fight against a ballot question that would have set mandated nurse-to- patient staffing ratios, but both sides — hospital leaders and a major nurses union — spent the aermath of the Nov. 6 midterm election pledging to improve patient care. "is is the beginning of a conver- sation, not the end. Question 1 forced some difficult and necessary discussions about the future of health care and the future of our workforce going forward," Steve Walsh, the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association's president and CEO, said on election night. "ese conversations with our care teams and in our communities have been critically important and will continue in bargaining sessions, legislative debates, boardrooms and newspapers," he said. "ese are con- versations we owe to the voters. Most importantly, these are conversations we owe to our patients." Despite the setback, the Massachu- setts Nurses Association, which fought for the new standards, said it will con- tinue fighting for better patient care. "is issue is now in the public, fi- nally outside the walls of the hospitals," Donna Kelly-Williams, the association president, said in a statement Tuesday night. "Nurses – in spite of aggressive intimidation by their employers – have engaged the public outside their work- place like never before. "Along the way, hospitals have ad- mitted there is a problem," Kelly-Wil- liams added. "ey just don't want to be held accountable with limits. We'll wait, along with those patients in harm's way, to see what their proposed solution is." e disagreement over Question 1 wasn't over whether hospitals need to provide better care, or at least continue to provide the best care it can. e Mas- sachusetts Nurses Association wanted mandated staffing ratios that would have meant thousands of new jobs across the state. e Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, which represents hospitals across the state, said additional costs would have crippled other operations. e association provided the bulk of $25 million collected by the Coalition to Protect Patient Safety, which fought against Question 1. In the end, Massachusetts voters swily rejected proposed standards on hospital nursing staff-to-patient ratios, backing hospital administrations in their battle against the Massachusetts Nurses Association. In public polling, public sentiment against the question appeared to sour aer a report in early October from the state's Health Policy Commission said the staffing standards would have increased costs for hospitals by up to $949 million a year. Question 1 was voted down, 70 percent to 30 percent, according to e Associated Press. Voters in nearly every community in the state rejected the question, including in Worcester, where it failed 60 percent to 40 percent, the AP reported on the Nov. 6 election. BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor W

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