Cal Nurses Association: Judge Blocks 2nd ‘Emergency’ Order on Safe Staffing

The order by Judge Judy Hersher means that all hospitals must be in compliance with the registered nurse-to-patient staffing law today. Hospitals must immediately restore safe ratios in emergency rooms and implement minimum staffing of no more than five patients for any one RN in general medical units, the two hospital areas affected by Gov. Schwarzenegger’s two emergency regulations.

Judge Hersher’s latest order was in response to a motion by the California Nurses Association which filed suit in December against the original emergency regulation issued by Gov. Schwarzenegger in November, 2004 suspending key parts of the safe staffing law. Earlier this month the judge issued an injunction against the first emergency order, only to see the Schwarzenegger administration file a second identical emergency regulation.

CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro called the judge’s new order “a victory for patients and the rule of law. It should send this governor an unequivocal message: stop trying to subvert the role of the legislature to enact safety laws, stop wasting more public money continuing the legal challenge to the law, and start putting patient protections ahead of the wish list of his corporate donors in the hospital industry.”

In her decision, Judge Hersher declared that the initial emergency regulation “was an abuse of discretion and not adopted in the manner required by law.” She found that the administration had failed to present any evidence of the pretexts it used for the emergency regulation, such as blaming ratios for hospital closings, and said even if true, such claims are “inconsistent with the fundamental purposes of the statute to ensure that nurses be ‘accessible and available to meet the needs of patients.’”

CNA is contacting hospitals across the state insisting that they comply with the judge’s decision. Many hospitals, CNA noted, are already in compliance.

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