Bill Text: CA AB57 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: University of California hospitals: staffing.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2010-01-14 - Consideration of Governor's veto stricken from file. [AB57 Detail]
Download: California-2009-AB57-Enrolled.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 57 ENROLLED
BILL TEXT
PASSED THE SENATE SEPTEMBER 1, 2009
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY MAY 21, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Price
DECEMBER 5, 2008
An act to add and repeal Section 1276.45 of the Health and Safety
Code, relating to health facilities.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 57, Price. University of California hospitals: staffing.
Existing law provides for the inspection, licensure, and
regulation of health facilities by the State Department of Public
Health, including, among other facilities, general acute care
hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals. A
violation of the provisions regulating health facilities is a crime.
Pursuant to the above authority, the department has adopted
regulations that require hospitals to develop a written staffing plan
that implement patient care requirements and staffing levels for
registered nurses and other licensed and unlicensed personnel
contained in those regulations.
This bill would require the department to establish a procedure
for collection and review of the written staffing plans and other
related information, as specified, from University of California
hospitals, with the exception of documentation relating only to
registered nurses. This bill would require University of California
hospitals to cooperate with the department in providing the above
information.
This bill would make its provisions inoperative on July 1, 2013,
and would repeal it as of January 1, 2014.
By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated
local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Public health interests require that hospitals provide safe
staffing levels at health facilities licensed pursuant to subdivision
(a), (b), or (f) of Section 1250 of the Health and Safety Code.
(b) Section 70217 of Title 22 of the California Code of
Regulations requires hospitals to implement a patient classification
system for determining the nursing care needs of patients and to
develop and implement written staffing plans that specify patient
care requirements and staffing levels for registered nurses and other
licenced and unlicensed personnel. The staffing plan must include
staffing requirements as determined by the patient classification
system for each patient care unit, documented on a day-to-day,
shift-by-shift basis. The reliability of the patient classification
system for validating staffing requirements is required to be
reviewed at least annually. If the review reveals that adjustments
are necessary in the patient classification system in order to ensure
accuracy in measuring patient care needs, the adjustments must be
implemented within 30 days of that determination.
(c) Section 70217 of Title 22 of the California Code of
Regulations also requires hospitals to develop and document a process
by which all interested staff may provide input about the patient
classification system, the system's required revisions, and the
overall staffing plan.
(d) Many staff, other than registered nursing personnel, provide
direct care, including respiratory therapists, phlebotomists,
radiology technicians, emergency room and surgical technicians, lab
technicians, vocational nurses, nursing assistants, and pharmacy
technicians.
(e) Short or inadequate staffing undermines patient care in many
ways. Inadequate staffing may cause staff to have to simultaneously
cover multiple patients in different parts of the hospital, cause
delays in getting patient test results, lead to inaccurate or
misleading films and tests, and increase back and other injuries to
employees that affect their ability to continue to provide quality
care.
(f) Inadequate staffing is a matter of statewide concern, so
Section 1276.45 is being added to the Health and Safety Code to
provide the department and the public with access to the written
staffing plans and actual staffing levels of the only general purpose
health care system owned and operated by a state entity.
(g) The University of California owns and operates five academic
medical centers. Collectively, the University of California medical
centers comprise one of the state's largest health care systems and
the only general purpose health care system owned and operated by a
state entity. With their tripartite mission of teaching, public
service, and research, the University of California medical centers
are a major resource for California. The fact that three of the five
University of California medical centers are located in counties that
have no county hospital demonstrates their importance.
(h) Due to the unique role University of California medical
centers play as comprising the only general purpose health care
system owned and operated by a state entity, they are in a unique
position to provide the Legislature and the department with the
information required by Section 1276.45 of the Health and Safety
Code.
SEC. 2. Section 1276.45 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
1276.45. (a) The State Department of Public Health shall
establish a procedure for collection and review of the written
staffing plans developed pursuant to Section 70217 of Title 22 of the
California Code of Regulations by all University of California
health facilities licensed pursuant to subdivision (a), (b), or (f)
of Section 1250. The procedure developed by the department shall not
apply to a review of documentation relating only to registered
nurses. The procedure developed by the department shall include
provision for collection and review of documentation relating to the
following:
(1) Review of the reliability of the patient classification system
as required by subdivision (e) of Section 70217 of Title 22 of the
California Code of Regulations.
(2) Adjustments in the patient classification system determined to
be necessary in light of the review conducted pursuant to
subdivision (e) of Section 70217 of Title 22 of the California Code
of Regulations and implementation of these adjustments.
(3) Staff input about the patient classification system, the
system's required revisions, and the overall staffing plan the
University of California health facilities receive pursuant to the
process developed and documented pursuant to subdivision (h) of
Section 70217 of Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations.
(b) If the department deems it necessary to reduce the volume of
information collected and reviewed pursuant to subdivision (a), the
department may identify specific time periods for which the
information is to be collected and review that information as a
representative sample.
(c) A University of California health facility licensed pursuant
to subdivision (a), (b), or (f) of Section 1250 from which the
department collects information pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be
required to cooperate with the department in providing the
information.
(d) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2013, and, as
of January 1, 2014, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2014, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.
SEC. 3. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.
