Recently, the New York State Legislature passed bills (pending Governor Cuomo’s signature) mandating that hospitals and nursing homes establish and maintain clinical staffing levels in their facilities. For hospitals, a clinical staffing committee will be tasked with hospital-wide staffing plans that indicate how many patients are assigned to each nurse and the number of ancillary staff in each unit. Because passage is likely given the present political climate, hospitals and nursing homes should begin making plans to meet compliance requirements. Our health care team is preparing in-service administration and staff training programs to support your organization with understanding and meeting the specifics or the new compliance requirements, once they are signed into law.

Highlights of the bills include:

• Regulations for nursing home staffing levels established by the state health department
• Statewide minimum staffing standard for nursing homes
• Clinical staffing committee for hospitals established by January 1, 2022 – with both clinical staff and hospital administrators having equal voting representation