SPRINGFIELD — Health care workers and advocates held a rally inside the Illinois State Capitol on Thursday to promote legislation aimed at enhancing the safety of hospital employees amid staffing shortages at some medical facilities.
“This is something that impacts the workers but then think about your loved ones when they are the patients, that they’re not getting the care that they need because there is no staff,” Kim Smith, a patient care technician for Northwestern Medicine, said through a loudspeaker that blared throughout the Capitol rotunda. “When I walk into a hospital and I’m given 36 patients and I’m the only tech on that floor, there’s no way I can deliver good care.”
A representative for Northwestern Medicine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Many of the demonstrators sported purple and gold shirts representing the Services Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois, which organized the rally.
Legislators are considering at least two measures meant to improve working conditions in hospitals that have experienced lower-than-normal staffing levels in recent years, among them facilities that serve economically disadvantaged sections of the Chicago area and other parts of the state.
One bill would require hospitals to employ and schedule enough workers “to provide quality patient care and ensure patient safety.” Hospitals would have to annually publish staffing statistics to assess whether they’re at proper levels. The measure would also require the Illinois Department of Public Health to produce an annual report based on staffing disclosures.
The bill also would create a position of a “hospital safety advocate” within the department and codify that hospitals must conduct “ongoing verification” for each hospital worker employed in a given year to determine their competency.
Another bill would require hospitals to develop a written staffing plan and submit it to the Public Health Department. The department would also establish a “Nurse Staffing Advisory Board” under this legislation.
“You shouldn’t have to worry about being burdened because you’re doing jobs that you shouldn’t be doing, you’re doing jobs that two or three people should be doing and that you’re violating the training that you were given,” state Sen. Christopher Belt, a Democrat from Swansea, a sponsor of one of the bills, said at the rally.
State Sen. Lakesia Collins, a Chicago Democrat who has worked in the health care industry, talked about how hard staffing shortages can be on workers.
“Whether it’s in a nursing home, a hospital, wherever, staffing matters,” said Collins, also a bill sponsor. “I can tell you about the experience of having that wear and tear on your body and … the wear and tear on your mental (health) because you’re left with the unthinkable but you still show up every single day and put in the work and yet we have to legislate something that is fundamental.”
An SEIU survey of Chicago-area hospital workers from January 2023 found that 70% of respondents reported understaffing and over 25% of respondents reported carrying an unsafe or unmanageable workload. It also highlighted racial disparities in health care access.
“Patient lives are being lost, Black and brown lives in particular. Hospital workers are being injured, especially those working in Black and brown communities,” said Anne Igoe, vice president of the Health Systems Division at SEIU Healthcare Illinois. “Our hospitals need to be fully funded no matter where they’re located, and we need to ensure that our hospitals are properly staffed and workers are valued.”
Citing statistics from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, SEIU Healthcare said that hospitals in the U.S. in 2019 recorded 221,400 work-related injuries and illnesses, a rate of 5.5 work-related injuries for every 100 full-time employees “and almost twice the rate for private industry as a whole.”
Ashley Bingham, a nursing assistant at Touchette Regional Hospital in Centreville, said she works at a behavioral health unit at the hospital and noted how she and her co-workers are put in danger by being physically attacked by patients because of being understaffed.
“We are being put in dangerous situations we know based upon our training that (are) unsafe,” Bingham said. “I’ve stayed because our patients are underserved and they need our help.”
Brad Solberg, interim president at Touchette Regional Hospital, issued a statement in response saying that the hospital “remains committed to ensuring a safe and secure working environment for our health care professionals.
“Over the past four months, we have seen a substantial decrease in incidences of workplace violence injuries at our facility. It serves as testament to our dedication to workplace safety,” Solberg said.
