Over the past week and a half, I\u2019ve spent countless hours sitting beside my grandfather\u2019s hospital bed at Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore. I wish I could say he was receiving compassionate, timely and attentive care. But the truth is, he hasn\u2019t. And that was heartbreaking.<\/p>\n
Time and again, I\u2019ve watched him press the call button and wait endlessly for help to use the bathroom, to get clean or simply to receive a cup of water. I\u2019ve witnessed his dinner order not arrive, and the staff casually tell him there\u2019s \u201cnothing that can be done\u201d because the kitchen had closed, even though he put the request in well before the deadline. I\u2019ve watched his IVs sit unchanged for hours and medications delayed far beyond what\u2019s safe. And I can\u2019t help but ask: If this is how he\u2019s treated when I\u2019m in the room \u2014 when someone is watching \u2014 what happens when no one is?<\/p>\n
This is not to villainize the hospital staff. I see their exhaustion. I see their stretched-thin schedules. I see the burnout in their faces. But that\u2019s the very problem. Our health care workers are overwhelmed and unsupported. And when they suffer, patients suffer too.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why we need to talk seriously about putting the care back in health care, and it starts with policy. Earlier this year, Maryland lawmakers had the opportunity to pass the Safe Staffing Act (S.B. 720), a commonsense piece of legislation that would\u2019ve improved working conditions for hospital staff and, as a result, improved care for patients like my grandfather. The bill called for each Maryland hospital to establish Safe Staffing Committees made up of frontline workers, support staff, physicians and even patient advocates. These committees would have created staffing guidelines tailored to each hospital\u2019s needs and shared data on staffing and patient outcomes with the state.<\/p>\n
It was a bill built on collaboration, on listening to the people actually doing the work. And it passed the full House. But in the Senate, it was stalled, watered down by last-minute amendments, and ultimately blocked in the Finance Committee, despite support from many members. The opposition of the committee chair, Sen. Pam Beidle, ensured that the bill never crossed the finish line.<\/p>\n
And that failure has consequences. It means more hospital staff leaving the field. It means longer ER wait times. It means vulnerable patients being left alone, unseen, unheard. It means families like mine suffer needlessly, wondering why a basic standard of care feels so out of reach.<\/p>\n
We can and must do better. Maryland has an obligation to protect both its patients and its health care workers. We need policies that prioritize quality care through adequate staffing and institutional accountability. The Safe Staffing Act must be reintroduced and passed next January, not weakened, not stalled. Our leaders must have the courage to stand with those most affected.<\/p>\n
My grandfather is a father, a veteran and a neighbor; and he deserves better. So does every other person lying in a hospital bed right now, waiting too long for help that may never come.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s fix what\u2019s broken. Let\u2019s put the care back in health care.<\/p>\n
Janay Fenner is a Baltimore resident and communications coordinator at the nonprofit advocacy organization Progressive Maryland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past week and a half, I\u2019ve spent countless hours sitting beside my grandfather\u2019s hospital bed at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[9097,9072,97,252,253,1493,91137,2077,91139,7125,91138],"class_list":["post-147146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-baltimore","tag-bill","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-janay-fenner","tag-legislation","tag-safe-staffing","tag-staff","tag-state-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}