Novato, CA-April 28, 2004: Catalyst Systems, LLC, a healthcare consulting company specializing in precision staffing solutions, delightedly announces that its CEO and co-founder, Holly De Groot, PhD, RN, FAAN, presented at a national conference entitled “The Way We Work and Its Impact on Our Health.” This first-of-its-kind program was held April 22-23 at the UCLA Sunset Village Conference Center, and was sponsored by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the University of California Centers for Occupational and Environmental Health. Dr. De Groot’s program, “When Policy Precedes Science: Mandated Staffing Ratios in Healthcare,” explored the problems associated with implementing government policy that is not grounded in science. Specifically, Dr. De Groot focused on the unintended effects of mandated nurse staffing ratios in California.
Currently, US employees work more hours per year than people in every other industrialized country. At the same time, companies are struggling to stay afloat in an uncertain economic climate. The growing tensions of trying to maintain this balance leaves workers at all levels feeling substantial stress and strain at work. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found in its 2002 annual survey that 60 percent of the US working population reported feeling work stress.
Dr. De Groot said, “Work stress in the nursing profession is particularly problematic because the associated increase in staff illness, injuries, burnout, and turnover may put at risk the very patients that need care. Fueling the situation is the worst nursing shortage of recent history as well as legislative attempts to mandate staffing during this nursing shortage. On January 1, 2004, California became the first state in the nation to mandate minimum nurse staffing ratios which is now causing some unanticipated negative effects for staff nurses and hospitals. Scientific evaluation of these staffing ratios on patients, nurses, and organizations will be essential to future governmental policy that works.”
Nurse-owned and operated, Catalyst Systems has provided healthcare organizations across the nation with its leading EVALISYS® Patient Classification System and objective workload studies for more than 18 years. Catalyst maintains the largest objective database of its type on workload and staff utilization in the US. The company is the leading authority on the collection and usage of such data in meeting patient care needs and ensuring that nursing staff is devoted to appropriate patient-focused activities. For more information on Catalyst, please email info@catsys.com, call 415-893-7600 or visit the website at www.catsys.com.