Introduced bill would set hospital nurse staffing and complaint rules

Hospital staffing committees would develop written staffing plans, and hospitals would have to follow them. The provisions cover hospital-wide and unit staffing plans, including direct care registered nurse assignments in specified hospital units. Committees would have equal numbers of hospital nurse managers and direct care staff, including nurses from each specialty or unit. If a committee has not adopted a plan for a unit, the ratios in the text would apply. A committee could approve limited deviations and certain innovative care models.

The Oregon Health Authority would investigate valid staffing complaints and could impose civil penalties under the listed rules. Hospital staff or their union representatives could complain about listed violations. Hospitals would provide specified staffing records after a valid complaint. The authority’s investigation report could not name complainants, patients, or people it interviewed. Hospitals would not face civil penalties for listed violations that happen before July 1, 2030. For later violations, penalties would rise with repeated violations; a four-year cap would apply. The authority could not impose a penalty for certain staffing-plan violations if the hospital took the specified steps to find qualified staff. The authority would decide within 30 days whether a complaint is valid and, if so, open an investigation. It would finish the investigation within 80 days. The penalty bar applies to violations before July 1, 2030.

The Oregon Health Authority could not impose certain staffing-plan penalties if a hospital completes the required steps to find qualified staff. The exception covers violations of nurse staffing plans and other hospital staffing plans. A separate rule covers nurse-to-patient ratios when a unit has no committee-adopted plan. The hospital would have to schedule staff under the plan, seek available qualified employees for extra work, contact employees who offered to work extra time, and ask per diem staff to work. It would also have to contact temporary agencies it regularly uses when their staff may legally work at the hospital.