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CONTACT: Hal Weiss (213) 247-4585

Sacramento, CA—The California Legislature passed Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel’s (D – Woodland Hills) AB 1422 on Thursday, a bill co-sponsored by SEIU Local 121RN and SEIU California. The bill is concerned with program flexibility, a process by which health facilities may be granted temporary waivers from requirements to comply with California’s nurse-to-patient ratios. AB 1422 aims to bring sunlight into the program flexibility waiver process, which proponents argue hospitals have frequently abused to sidestep mandated safe staffing levels.

One of the law’s key provisions is a requirement that health facilities and the California Department of Public Health make requests and approvals of program flexibility waivers publicly available.

The Assembly approved a final amended version of the bill in a 54-16 vote, less than 24 hours after the Senate voted it out of that chamber. The bill’s backers expect that the Governor will sign it into law.

“Program flexibility allows hospitals to operate in the dark as they cut corners and slash staffing levels, which endangers patients and puts RNs’ licenses at risk,” said SEIU Local 121RN President Dr. Nina Wells, DNP, MSN-NE, RN, PHN, at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard. “Nurses believe that patients deserve to know that hospital administrators too often—and with unnecessary risk—fail to ensure there are enough RNs on duty to safely staff the number of hospital beds.”

“As the son of a nurse, I learned firsthand that nurses are both compassionate caregivers as well as devoted patient advocates, which is why it’s so important that they have a voice in critical hospital safety decisions,” said Assemblymember Gabriel. “I am proud to partner with SEIU and nurses across California to advance this important legislation.”

“Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, our hospitals cut corners in extremely dangerous ways. The pandemic—and our nation’s uneven response, our hospitals’ lack of preparedness, and the sluggish responses from enforcing agencies—just made it worse,” said SEIU Local 121RN Executive Director Rosanna Mendez. “California has some of the strongest regulations to protect patients. Union Nurses fought for these laws and rules. The trouble is, there continues to be a lack of enforcement, transparency or a willingness to listen to Nurses on the front lines. AB 1422 would finally give Nurses a voice in the process that has allowed hospitals to make Nurses responsible for a dangerous number of beds—endangering patients and putting RNs’ licenses at risk.”

The union’s push to pass AB 1422 is part of an ongoing effort to strengthen Title 22, which regulates the number of patients that can be assigned to hospital nurses. The legislation builds on SB 227, the “Stop Repeat Offender Hospitals” bill championed by SEIU 121RN which became law in 2019. SB 227 sought to enforce safe staffing laws by levying stiff penalties on hospitals which repeatedly violated them, and by mandating random hospital inspections.

California is currently the only state in the country that mandates nurse to patient ratios by law.

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*SEIU Local 121RN represents registered nurses and other healthcare professionals in California. This member-led organization is committed to supporting optimum working conditions that allow nurses to provide quality patient care and safety.*

**Fact Sheet on AB 1422**

AB 1422 would require any hospital applying for program flexibility to:

• Submit supporting evidence showing the need for program flexibility.
• Demonstrate that low staffing won’t compromise patient care.
• Give both the public and Nurses a 30-day window to make public comment to provide arguments against letting hospitals skirt safe staffing regulations.
• Post its program flexibility application where both patients and staff can see it, bringing much more transparency than currently exists to this practice of having Nurses care for more than the recommended maximum number of patients.

Read Neonatal ICU Nurse Teresa Rowe’s account describing how dangerous program flexibility can be.

Simply put: AB 1422 will ensure that nurses will have voice to ensure safe staffing.