Business
Calif. nurse-staffing law goes into effect
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted May 2, 2005
A law requiring California hospitals to have one nurse for every five patients, on the clock at all times, is finally being implemented after months of legal wrangling, eliciting cheers from nurses who say it will improve patient safety and cries from hospitals who say it is too great a burden.
The nurse-patient ratio was supposed to take effect in January, but emergency regulations backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger halted it, and a court battle was waged. But after a judge ruled to suspend the regulations in March, the state health department advised California's roughly 400 acute care hospitals to implement the measure.
That means the hospitals now have to meet the 5-to-1 minimum staffing level for all medical, surgical and medical-surgical mixed units, which covers most patient beds. Other hospital units already had staffing ratio requirements that took effect in 2004.
It also means that staffing ratios must be implemented at all times -- covering even when a nurse takes a break -- and that some of the staffing flexibility previously afforded to emergency departments is gone, said Ken August, spokesman for the California Dept. of Health Services.
Already, hospital leaders say the pinch is being felt. They claim that the measure is too burdensome because there aren't enough nurses available and the cost is overwhelming, especially to financially-strapped facilities.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/05/02/bibf0502.htm.
