Patient to Nurse Ratio

Yosemite, RN, ASN, EMT-I · Jun 28, 2007

I havent' read the text of the law, lately. You can find summaries on the California Nurses' Accociation web site; there, also, I believe you can find the text of the law.

Violations can be reported to the Department of Health Services. There is the sticking point. They are woefully unable to investigate such complaints as they, too, have to "triage" to manage their resources.

If it is a "union shop," reporting them to the union would get better results.

Unavailable · Jul 15, 2008

in austalia we have 4 to 1 in public (law)but in the private hospital i work though its usually 5-1 and can reach 6-1

suzanne4, RN · Jul 16, 2008

In CA since January, 2008, the specific laws states the ratio is 1:4 on a tele unit and 1:5 on med surg. The facility must meet these requirements or they can get fined. I know of one facility that has told their nurses that since they are required to take any patient that shows up at their door, that they can make changes to this ruling, but in fact that is not true and the state has paid them surprise visits because of this.

There are several threads here that list the contact numbers of who to report them to, you just need to do a search here. I remember posting it at one time, but do not have the information in front of me.

As long as the facility is an acute care facility they are not permitted to make any changes to this and it applies to them. You can also contact CNA, the nursing union for their assistance on this as well.

Best of luck to you.