On March 14, California Legislators held a hearing on CDPH oversight and SEIU 121RN was there to hold regulators’ feet to the fire and demand accountability for enforcing safe staffing laws.
SEIU 121RN Secretary-Treasurer Joyce Powell represented our Union in an expert panel discussion at the March 14 hearing of the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. Powell, who is an Emergency Room Nurse at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, reminded the Committee members that she had addressed them last year about SB227, a law that mandates fines for hospitals that repeatedly violate California’s nurse to patient ratios. And still, one year later, CDPH is still not fully enforcing the law.
“Our members have issued hundreds of complaints about ratio violations and nurses across the state have submitted many more,” Powell told the Senators. “Responses to our complaints often take months, even in cases where the complaint includes a patient death or demonstrates that patients’ lives may have been at risk. Sometimes, we never hear back at all.”
Powell’s appearance before the committee kicks off year two of our “Patients Can’t Wait” campaign to push CDPH to enforce nurse-to-patient ratios.
Our campaign began on February 28, 2023, when hundreds of SEIU 121RN members rallied at CDPH offices in Oxnard to tell CDPH loud and clear: “Patients Can’t Wait” for ratio enforcement. That action generated local media coverage and drew attention on social media from across the country.
In May of that year, we took our campaign to the state Capitol, joining with other healthcare unions and elected officials, who echoed our call to action—because life-saving Nurse-to-patient ratios protect us all.
Then, last June, 26 state legislators sent a letter to the CDPH director demanding the agency issue a plan of action to appropriately enforce safe staffing laws.
The Senators and Assemblymembers wrote that they were, "deeply troubled by the stories [they] have heard arising from reported unsafe staffing examples, including immobile patients who go hours without being turned in their beds which lead to bed sores" and "nurses who work for twelve-hour shifts without a break," which 121RN members know is all-too-common in our hospitals. The lawmakers continue, "We cannot afford to lose any more highly skilled nurses and healthcare professionals." No, we can't. And our patients can’t wait.
In September of last year, with pressure mounting from our campaign, CDPH issued an "All Facilities Letter" to all California hospitals, putting them on notice that they will be fined for ignoring safe staffing laws. This move, while incomplete and inadequate, encouraged us to keep fighting.
And on the heels of our participation in the Senate subcommittee hearing this month, CalMatters published a story about a tragic case of patient harm, shining a light on this issue. In that case, a family alleges that HCA’s practice of understaffing West Hills Hospital in the San Fernando Valley directly caused life-altering injury to their loved one. The family of Josh Saeta describe the very type of scenario that 121RN members are trying to avoid by pushing for CDPH accountability and strong ratio enforcement.
In 2024, we are not letting up. Our patients can’t wait.
You can view an Instagram Reel recapping our campaign here, and sign our petition at: patientscantwait.org.
