SJC to consider ballot question affecting nursing assignments

A ballot initiative that could have a drastic effect on how hospitals assign patients to nurses has come under fire, and next month the state’s highest court will consider whether voters should have a chance to consider the controversial proposal.

Four voters have asked the Supreme Judicial Court to decertify the Patient Safety Act, arguing that Attorney General Maura Healey improperly certified it for the November ballot. The voters, who have received the backing of Steward Health Care System LLC, say it violates the Massachusetts Constitution.

“This appeal is about upholding the ability of Massachusetts voters to make clear, uniform public policy choices through the initiative petition process,” wrote Steward attorney Thaddeus A. Heuer in a filing urging the SJC to toss the measure.

The proposal would set patient assignment limits for registered nurses at medical facilities, but it also prevents those facilities from reducing their health care staffing levels in the name of meeting those limits.

Opponents argue that the two provisions are not sufficiently related and therefore violate the state Constitution.

“Voters who might favor mandatory nurse-patient ratios cannot register their preference without also supporting the enactment of a costly, unfunded and overbroad workforce retention mandate,” wrote Elissa Flynn-Poppey, an attorney for the taxpayers.

Flynn-Poppey argues that the ban on reducing staffing levels would force hospitals to keep “virtually everybody” — including lawyers and marketers — who “could not possibly have an impact on the quality of nursing care in particular, or on patient safety in general.”

Healey’s office responded yesterday, arguing that the proposed law creates an “integrated regulatory scheme” that is narrow enough to pass the constitutional challenge.

Committee to Ensure Safe Patient Care, the group backing the initiative, said in a statement that “we are pleased that the Attorney General approved the language we put forth for the Patient Safety Act and we believe that decision will stand up to any challenge.”

The committee is also seeking to have the SJC overturn a decision by Healey to not certify a version of the petition that would require public disclosure of hospital financial information.

Healey’s office said, in that case, there is a “lack of cohesion between the proposed law’s asset disclosure provision and its patient assignment limits” rendering it unconstitutional.

The high court will hear arguments on both petitions April 3.