Massachusetts Nurses Want Patient Limits

Ensuring efficiency in a hospital is key to the best of care, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association is trying to help that initiative along.

MNA representatives will be at the Buttonwood Senior Center Thursday, collecting signatures to get the Patient Safety Act on the 2014 ballot. The bill would limit the number of patients a nurse can preside over at once.

MNA spokesman David Schildmeier tells WBSM's "Mid-Day Live" the nurses, not the doctors, are usually first to respond if something goes wrong in the hospital.

The Patient Safety Act would set a maximum of two to three patients per nurse, depending on what department they're stationed in.

A total of 70,000 signatures is required to get the question on the ballot.

MNA representatives will be at the Buttonwood Senior Center Thursday from 11:30am to 1pm.