New Jersey Governor Signs Groundbreaking Law Requiring Hospitals To Disclose Nurse-to-Patient Staffing Levels

TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey’s Acting Gov. Richard Codey today signed a groundbreaking law that requires New Jersey hospitals to make daily public disclosures of the ratio of patients to nurses and other healthcare workers who provide direct patient care.

“Consumers will now have the information they need to select the best-staffed – and therefore the safest – hospital,” said Ann Twomey, president of Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), the moving force behind the New Jersey bill.HPAE is the New Jersey/Pennsylvania affiliate of AFT Healthcare.

Illinois is the only other state with a staffing-level disclosure law.The Illinois law requires hospitals to provide staffing levels upon request (not public postings) and requires hospitals to compile information for quarterly and annual reports, including patient outcomes, nursing hours per patient day and nurse turnover rates.

“The disclosure law is a major step forward in our ultimate goal of national staffing ratios.When nurses and other healthcare workers have a dangerously high number of patients in their care, patients suffer,” said Candice Owley, chair of AFT Healthcare, a division of the AFT, which represents more than 65,000 nurses and other healthcare professionals.

Under federal law, nursing homes already are required to disclose staffing levels.

Under the New Jersey law, every hospital must post on a daily basis in patient care units the number of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nurse aides and other licensed professionals providing direct care, and the ratio of these healthcare workers to patients.

# # # #