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Health Care: Mandatory Nurse-to-Patient Staffing Ratios in California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Stefanie Berman
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Extract

On January 22, 2002, California Governor Gray Davis released the state's long-anticipated, proposed regulations establishing hospital nurse-to-patient ratio requirements. The Safe Staffing Law (A.B. 394) mandating minimum ratios was enacted in October 1999 in response to legislators concerns that [q]uality of patient care is jeopardized because of staffing changes implemented in response to managed care. While the law was scheduled to take effect by January 1, 2002, conflict within the medical community regarding appropriate ratios slowed down the rulemaking process. Lawmakers now anticipate that the rule will be implemented by January 2003. Approximately 5,000 new nurses will need to be hired for California's hospitals to come into compliance with the proposed regulation.

Type
Recent Developments in Health Law
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , Summer 2002 , pp. 312 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2002

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References

Prior to issuing the final rule, the California Department of Health Services will conduct a 45-day comment period on the proposed regulation in the spring of 2002. See Mahoney, L. Gilroy, T., “California: California Rulemaking Would Set Nurse-to-Patient Ratios in Hospitals,” BNA Health Law Reporter, 11 (2002): 145.Google Scholar
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