Caroline Menjivar
- Democratic
- Senator
- District 20
Author
Existing law provides for the licensure of various health facilities, including general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals, by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires the department to adopt regulations that establish minimum, specific, and numerical licensed nurse-to-patient ratios by licensed nurse classification and by hospital unit for all general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals. Existing law requires the department to assess an administrative penalty of $15,000 for the first violation and $30,000 for the second and each subsequent violation if the department determines that a specified health facility has violated nurse-to-patient ratios, as specified. Under existing law, an acute general hospital is not subject to this administrative penalty if the hospital demonstrates it has met specified requirements, including that any fluctuation in required staffing levels was unpredictable and uncontrollable, prompt efforts were made to maintain required staffing levels, and the hospital immediately used and subsequently exhausted the hospital's on-call list of nurses and the charge nurse. Existing law specifies that multiple violations found on the same inspection survey constitute a single violation for purposes of determining whether the violation was a first, 2nd, or subsequent violation. This bill would define "on-call list" for the above purpose and would specify that a hospital contacting, or attempting to contact, licensed nurses who are not scheduled to be on call and who are not assigned to a float pool for the unit and shift where an alleged violation occurred is not considered as exhausting an on-call list. The bill would require the department to treat violations on separate days as separate violations.
Approved by the Governor.
Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 773, Statutes of 2025.
Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 21. Noes 10. Page 2973.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 48. Noes 19. Page 3318.) Ordered to the Senate.
Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading.
From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 10. Noes 4.) (August 29).
August 20 set for first hearing. Placed on APPR. suspense file.
From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 12. Noes 2.) (July 15). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH.
July 8 hearing postponed by committee.
In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk.
Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 24. Noes 10. Page 1510.) Ordered to the Assembly.
Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 1. Page 1205.) (May 23).
Set for hearing May 23.
May 12 hearing: Placed on APPR. suspense file.
Set for hearing May 12.
Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 2. Page 868.) (April 23).
Set for hearing April 23.
From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH.
From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 23.
Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.
| Bill Text Versions | Format |
|---|---|
| SB596 | HTML |
| 02/20/25 - Introduced | |
| 03/27/25 - Amended Senate | |
| 04/28/25 - Amended Senate | |
| 07/03/25 - Amended Assembly | |
| 09/02/25 - Amended Assembly | |
| 09/18/25 - Enrolled | |
| 10/13/25 - Chaptered |
| Document | Format |
|---|---|
| 04/21/25- Senate Health | |
| 05/09/25- Senate Appropriations | |
| 05/26/25- Sen. Floor Analyses | |
| 07/11/25- Assembly Health | |
| 08/18/25- Assembly Appropriations | |
| 09/03/25- ASSEMBLY FLOOR ANALYSIS | |
| 09/11/25- Sen. Floor Analyses |
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