Massachusetts Medical Society opposes nurses' initiatives

The Massachusetts Medical Society is opposing two initiatives developed by the Massachusetts Nurses Association that would designate nurse-patient staffing ratios and would impose penalties on hospitals whose profit margins go above 8% and whose CEOs' annual compensation exceeds 100 times the compensation offered the hospital's lowest-paid employee.

Dr. Richard Pieters, MMS president, said in a news release that healthcare institutions can assume that they will be receiving no additional state and federal funding, so increasing nurse staff would mean personnel would be cut elsewhere. Pieters added that the other measure was unnecessary and its proposed limits and penalties arbitrary.

“Further, the civil penalties proposed seem arbitrary and punitive,” Pieters said. “Penalties would be on hospitals whose profits exceed 8%, or whose CEOs receive compensation exceeding 100 times the hospital's lowest-paid staff workers. These and other benchmarks have no discernible basis in science or any other objective measure.”

Follow Andis Robeznieks on Twitter: @MHARobeznieks