California proposes nurse-patient ratios

CNN.com ^ | 23 January, 2002 | Associated Press

[ThJ1800]

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Gov. Gray Davis has proposed strict staffing rules in hospitals that would mandate the number of nurses assigned to each patient.

The new rules, which still must go through a normal regulatory review process, would make California the first state in the nation to set minimum nurse staffing levels.

[Dog Gone]

I think the State has a bona fide interest in regulating medical care as long as there is due process.

I guess I could see how the State has a bona fide interest in regulating everything they can think of. Why not?

Certainly the State bureaucrats know better than the people who actually work in the businesses, right? Heck, let's put them in charge of hiring and firing, too. That way they could make sure that's done right.

The government knows best.

[CindyDawg]

You are seeing what happens already.You are expecting the government to use common sense. CA wants to regulate staff on one hand but is offering big bucks to recruit from Texas. Nurses manage nurses. We care. I would hire 3 tomorrow if I could. My company isn't the problem. The nurses just aren't there. We (the staff) are doing the best we can with very little appreciation. What am I supposed to do if someone calls in or quits if I have a fixed staffing pattern? Send someone home? Turn someone away? There is a problem but asking the government to fix something that I feel they caused isn't the answer.

[Edmund Burke]

It is the same in other socialized industries such as teaching. School districts do not hire the most experienced or well educated teachers. They only hire those with no experience and a bachelor's degree. Once you gain experience and a Master's Degree, you are stuck in the district in which you are employed because nobody else wants you. In other words, they are just looking for a warm body to fill a slot. There is no reason to be concerned about customer satisfaction since that plays no part in socialized industries.

[JustTheTruth]

Here we go again - government screwing around big-time with the market for labor. What a gift to the California Nurses Association! As if Gov. gray-out hadn't already totally screwed up the energy market in California - with huge, long-term negative financial impacts on taxpayers - here he goes again with this doozy . . .

Socialists in America refuse to learn from their experiences; another definition for insanity.

Does anybody know the average RN salary in California? It is probably close to $60,000 per year not counting overtime and shift-differentials and decent benefits. Tough job? Yes, but you don't necessarily even need a 4 year degree to be one . . .

Valuable profession? Incredibly so . . .

However, unsafe hospitals already get sued big time when they screw up. This isn't about patient safety, it is about political payback.

We are in the nation's biggest nursing shortage in history, and Governor Gray-out pushes up the "demand" curve dramatically - while the Supply of nurses is relatively inelastic. As any idiot knows, this is a recipe for a huge shortage in supply, a huge price increase, and still no more nurses for years to come. California will just swipe nurses from other states and keep pushing up the price. More hospitals will close, especially those that are not "in it for the money" - those that care for the poor and uninsured. Those hospitals are already reeling financially, and guess what the solution will be? Yup, government bail outs and prop-ups.

Davis is such a fool.

Too many posters are blaming hospitals - but get real, most hospitals in this country are losing money . . . Their largest payers are the Federal and State governments which guarantee huge levels of benefits to those "insured" by the tax payer, and then the government refuses to pay the full cost of those services to providers. Providers then must try to charge paying customers more to make up for it, and this just becomes a hidden tax on the insured (the taxpayer). Gov. Davis & co. are only going to make a nursing shortage problem worse, make the nurses more militant in their demands (what do you say about a nurse who leaves a neonatal intensive care unit full of babies to go on strike for higher wages)? I wish I could say that California deserves what it got for electing Davis, but they do not deserve it, despite the bad election decision.

[Psycho_Bunny]

What's the State going to do, if this passes, and medical costs shoot up.

"Doh! We didn't see THAT coming."

Idiots. Hopefully, CA will go bankrupt sooner rather than later, so the rest of the nation can see what the results of socialism truly are.

[hoot2]

"California proposes nurse-patient ratios

And the moral of this story is?"

sorry, couldn't find a pic of "nurse goodbody"...so,

[a_witness]

You are expecting the government to use common sense.

Actually I am expecting the voters of California to use common sense, especially the soccer moms.

Once upon a time in California ...

[a_witness]

The government knows best.

As opposed to the voters ?

Your complaint is with the citizens of California who elect(ed) Gray Davis and other Democrats. They are without excuse.

[Dog Gone]

Some other states are watching how California manages with its proposed staffing requirements, including Massachusetts, where lawmakers have discussed a similar plan.

It's a race between California and Massachussetts to see which state can adopt the most policies that would make Lenin proud, I think.