Missing on broadband

Dear Editor,

Well news travels slowly in Warren County. Today we learned there is $200 million in funding statewide for broadband improvements, but the deadline for application is July 10. This funding was announced April 5 and applications were accepted beginning on May 10.

We should have known this was coming since the Pennsylvania Broadband Authority was created over a year ago for this purpose.

They invited us to public meetings on Dec. 14 in Franklin and Ridgway to learn what they were going to do regarding the fed funding coming, and the importance of updating the FCC broadband map that was in progress. Well a friend of mine and I attended but no one else from our county. Not our part-time commissioner or our Broadband Task Force, whoever that is.

I could go on but what’s the point. I do hope we get some of the funding to make some improvements but really doubt we will because we have no leadership.

Gregory Burkett,

Warren

Act a health care win

Dear Editor,

We need to pass the Patient Safety Act (PSA), HB 106.

Dr. Linda Aiken, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, FRCN, and Director of University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, was a key speaker during the House Healthcare Committee meeting in Harrisburg on May 2. She has done 30 years of research with nurse-to-patient ratios that shows the Patient Safety Act would save lives (1,100 per year), improve patient outcomes, and saves hospitals money. Common sense, right?

Let Pennsylvania be a leader in health care. With the PSA there will be fewer infections, falls, bedsores, readmissions, and medical errors to mention a few which may lead to litigation for the hospital. It would also mean less nurse turnover and it costs $80,000 to train one new nurse.

We don’t have a shortage of nurses, we have a shortage of nurses willing to work at the bedside in unsafe conditions! There are 100,000 licensed nurses in the state currently not working as a nurse. Many say they will come back if HB 106 passes and they can work under safe conditions and give their patients the care they were trained to give.

New nurses are leaving the field stating they had no idea it would be this unsafe. Established nurses take travel positions because they have contracts and limits to the number of patients they can be given.

Speeding up our nurse licensure process is needed, but definitely not the fix to filling nurse positions. Nurses across PA are sounding the alarm! We have stepped up for all of you. We need you to step up for us now. Pass the Patient Safety Act now!

Eileen C. Kelly, RN, BSN,

Nurses of PA,

Sheffield