Wednesday, October 12, 2011

California Governor Signs Landmark Patient Safety Legislation

California Governor Signs Landmark Patient Safety Legislation Governor Jerry Brown recently signed landmark Safe Patient Handling legislation (AB 1136) to prevent a staggering epidemic of workplace injuries among hospital workers while improving patient care.

"The SEIU nurses here in California have long recognized the need for safe patient handling legislation and this was the year to finally get that accomplished,” said Ingela Dahlgren, RN, the Executive Director of the SEIU Nurse Alliance of California. “Too many of our nurses and other healthcare workers have been injured on the job while moving or repositioning the patients in their care.”

The nation's first Safe Patient Handling law requiring the purchase of safe patient handling equipment and training programs was passed in Washington State in 2006. As a result of the implementation of this law, a January 2011 study found that neck, back and shoulder injuries to hospital workers caused by manual patient handling have decreased by more than one third.

· Read more about this victory for patient care here.