AFSCME, NNOC/CNA To Jointly Sponsor Push for Law

Chicago area registered nurses and other healthcare employees will join with state legislators Monday to announce a major escalation in efforts to enact a critical bill to require minimum safe staffing standards in Illinois hospitals to protect patient safety that will also help to mitigate the nursing shortage.

HB 2548, introduced by Rep. Mary Flowers would require minimum RN-to-patient staffing ratios for all hospital units and prohibit hospitals from retaliating against nurses who refuse to accept staffing assignments that jeopardize patient safety. A companion bill, SB 2270, has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Iris Martinez.

The bill is co-sponsored by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association (NNOC/CNA). AFSCME Council 31 began pushing for the legislation last summer, held a large legislative forum in July, has met with legislators and held a forum in Springfield. A coalition of community groups, including Citizen Action, is also supporting the bill.

Flowers and Martinez will join representatives of NNOC/CNA and AFSCME at the press conference.

The bill is similar to a 1999 California law, sponsored by NNOC/CNA, that has enhanced care standards in California hospitals and helped produce a substantial increase in the number of RNs in that state.

As in Illinois, California hospital corporations have opposed the law. But in November, after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, due to public opposition, abandoned efforts to roll back the staffing law, state health department officials conceded that the bill is working and hospitals have been able to meet the staffing requirements.

Similar laws have been proposed in approximately 20 other states.