Bill Text: CA AB2899 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

---

Bill Title: General acute care hospitals: licensed nurse-to-patient ratios.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Enrolled) 2024-08-27 - Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 12 p.m. [AB2899 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB2899-Amended.html

---

Amended  IN  Assembly  March 11, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 2899

---

Introduced by Assembly Member Gabriel

February 15, 2024

---

An act to amend Section 50001 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to housing. add Section 1276.45 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to health facilities.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 2899, as amended, Gabriel. Housing. General acute care hospitals: licensed nurse-to-patient ratios.

Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health adopted regulations that establish minimum, specific, and numerical licensed nurse-to-patient ratios by licensed nurse classification and by hospital unit within a general acute care hospital, among other health facilities. Existing regulations require licensed nurse-to-patient ratios to represent the maximum number of patients assigned to one licensed nurse at any one time, and define “assigned” to mean the licensed nurse has responsibility for the provision of care to a particular patient within their scope of practice.

This bill would require the department, when transmitting to a general acute care hospital the action to be taken on a substantiated violation of the regulation establishing licensed nurse-to-patient ratios, to simultaneously transmit the same information to the person who filed the claim of the violation and their collective bargaining agent or representative, if any. The bill would further require the department, if the action to be taken does not include a fine, to simultaneously transmit a statement of the reasoning for not imposing a fine to the person who filed the claim of the violation and their collective bargaining agent or representative, if any.

Existing law, the Zenovich-Moscone-Chacon Housing and Home Finance Act, states that the Legislature finds and declares that the subject of housing is of vital statewide importance to the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of the state for specified reasons.

This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to those provisions.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NOYES   Local Program: NO  

---

Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 1276.45 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

1276.45.

 When the State Department of Public Health transmits to a general acute care hospital the action to be taken on a substantiated violation of Section 70217 of Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations or any successor regulation, the department shall simultaneously transmit the same information regarding the action to be taken, including, but not limited to, a corrective action plan, to the person who filed the claim of the violation and their collective bargaining agent or representative, if any. If the action to be taken does not include a fine, the department shall also simultaneously transmit a statement of the reasoning for not imposing a fine to the person who filed the claim of the violation and their collective bargaining agent or representative, if any.

SECTION 1.Section 50001 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

50001.

The Legislature finds and declares that the subject of housing is of vital statewide importance to the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of this state, for all of the following reasons:

(a)Decent housing is an essential motivating force in helping people achieve self-fulfillment in a free and democratic society.

(b)Unsanitary, unsafe, overcrowded, or congested dwelling accommodations or lack of decent housing constitute conditions which cause an increase in, and spread of, disease and crime.

(c)A healthy housing market is one in which residents of this state have a choice of housing opportunities and one in which the housing consumer may effectively choose within the free marketplace.

(d)A healthy housing market is necessary both to achieve a healthy state economy and to avoid an unacceptable level of unemployment.