Hawaii lawmakers target nurse staffing ratios ahead of legislative session

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Hawaii lawmakers plan to take up the issue of patient-nurse ratios this session to prevent future strikes and lockouts.

It comes amid a wave of labor contract disputes over hospital staffing.

State Rep. Sean Quinlan, the House Majority leader, said retaining nurses is critical for the future of the state’s health care system.

“It’s really important for the future health of our health care system that we come up with a way that we can retain nurses, that patients are safer, and they we don’t run into a situation 10-15 years from now where we have this wave of retirements and we don’t have enough nurses to replace them because we have an aging population,” said Quinlan.

Union leaders said they want a fixed nurse-to-patient ratio, calling it safer, while hospital administrators say they need flexibility to adjust for different patients’ needs.

Proponents of defining ratios in state law say it eliminates uncertainty and improves working conditions.

Quinlan said he’s looking at a pared-down, or simplified, version of last year’s nurse staffing ratios legislation.

“The reality is in a lot of different units in our hospitals, we have too many patients for too few nurses, and we’re seeing a lot of burnout,” said Quinlan. “We’re seeing bad outcomes because one nurse can’t necessarily, at the end of a 12-hour shift, juggle all these patients.”

“We just have to compromise somewhere between the nurse’s position and the health care system’s position, and I think that would be better for all of us,” said Quinlan.

Tax credit expansion

State Rep. Jackson Sayama said he wants to expand the Hawaii Health Care Preceptor Tax Credit to ease workforce shortages, especially on neighbor islands.

“Just because we’re not expanding the credit itself, we’re expanding who qualifies,” said Sayama. “Currently, the credit isn’t fully used, so hopefully by expanding this definition, we could fully, fully, utilize a credit without having a financial impact on the state budget.”

HMSA merger concerns

Lawmakers also raised concerns about the potential merger between insurance giant HMSA and Hawaii Pacific Health. There is some skepticism that any monopoly in the local health care system will lower consumer costs.

“I think there are some very tough questions that need to be asked before this merger is approved,” said Quinlan.