Oregon Public Broadcasting

Too many patients, too few nurses. That’s the situation in hospitals across Washington.

For years political battles have prevented a solution. But now hospitals and nurses in Washington State have signed a formal agreement to begin to work together. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins has more.

The agreement requires hospitals to work with nurses to develop minimum appropriate staffing levels.

Those so-called staffing plans along with the number of nurses on duty would be posted for patients and visitors to see. 

In addition, when mistakes happen hospitals would have to disclose to the Department of Health how many nurses were on duty at the time.

The goal of this work-together approach is to avoid one-size-fits-all mandates for hospital staffing levels.

Ultimately the goal is to reduce turnover in the nursing profession and improve patient safety.