COVID 19 Regulation Waiver

[frenchxtoast]

Hi, I'm an RN currently working in a small, rural, "critical access" hospital in California. Recently, we had a meeting and the floor manager posted a letter from the CDPH (California Department of Public Health) which can be viewed here:

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CHCQ/LCP/Pages/AFL-20-26.aspx

Here is a link to Executive Order N-27-20

https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/3.15.2020-COVID-19-Facilities.pdf

The floor manager claims that this letter, AFL 20-26, citing Executive Order N-27-20, waives the facility from having to abide by normal patient ratios, and that we nurses on med surg may have to take 6+ patients instead of our normal 1:5 ratio. The floor manager also said that the DON will be calling the BRN and reporting any of us who refuse out of ratio assignments to have them pull our RN licenses. I responded by saying "that's threatening retaliation for not accepting an out of ratio assignment, and that's illegal." The manager replied "that's not a threat, that's a promise."

Does anyone know anything about this letter or executive order? Is there any sort of burden of proof on the facility to show they tried their best to get RN's from staffing agencies or travelers, or are they just point blank exempt from patient ratios until 06/30/2020?

The actual real life implications of this letter are unclear to me.

I've recently had issues with this facility, as outlined in this previous post.

https://allnurses.com/RN-lvn-ratio-acute-care-t713736/?tab=comments#comment-7528295