• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

CA proposes to delay more stringent nurse-to-patient ratios scheduled for January 1

Nurse Leader Weekly, November 12, 2004

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Nurse Leader Weekly!

California Department of Health Services Director Sandra Shewry proposed emergency regulations on November 4 to delay-until 2008-a law requiring more stringent mandatory nurse-to-patient ratio for combined medical/surgical hospital units. The current ratio of six patients to every one med/surg nurse is scheduled to be changed to 5:1 on January 1, 2005, according to the state's 1999 nurse staffing law.

In addition, the proposed changes would give hospitals more flexibility in the number of nurses required in emergency rooms and ease rules regarding the maintenance of ratios while nurses are at lunch or on break.

During the three-year delay the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) says it will conduct a study on the law's impact.

CDHS says 11 hospitals have identified nurse-to-patient staffing ratios as a cause for the closure of their respective emergency department or psychiatric unit, and four hospitals have petitioned the CDHS to suspend the use of available beds due to their inabilities to provide enough nurses to care for the patients.

"These changes provide commonsense flexibility for hospital emergency departments and clarify language in the current regulations," said Shewry.

The president of the California Nurses Association, Deborah Burger, RN, countered in a statement posted on the group's Web site (www.calnurses.org). Burger says the state's proposal "threatens the progress we have made in California in reducing the nursing shortage. This irresponsible public policy could actually exacerbate the nursing shortage at a time when those hospitals that have complied with the law have seen their vacancy and turnover rates sharply fall. The ratio law is a major reason why more nurses are coming into California and why more registered nurses are staying at the bedside."

The changes will take effect in 10 days, if approved by the state Office of Administrative Law. Subsequently, there will be a 45-day public comment period and a single public hearing.

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Nurse Leader Weekly!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive