Senate Bill 596 (SB 596) passed an important legislative hurdle earlier this month when it was voted out of the Assembly Committee on Health—overcoming strong opposition from the California Hospital Association (CHA), the powerful lobbying arm of the industry.

SB 596 is our union’s priority legislation to pass in 2025. The bill requires the California Department of Public Health to fully enforce our Nurse-to-patient ratios so that hospitals can’t continue to find ways to staff below the requirement. Our bill will strengthen Nurse to patient ratios, so hospitals can’t evade the law. It is the latest front in our historic Patient’s Can’t Wait campaign. Here is what the bill does:

• Ends the practice of “bundling complaints” that are made at a hospital on or around the same date, so that penalties are issued for each staffing violation.
• Defines and standardizes the call list process for exemptions, so that hospitals can’t merely claim they made an effort to call in staff when they have not.

We won on this important vote, but it is just one step in the long legislative process. CHA has tagged our legislation as their number-one “kill bill,” which means they’ll continue to pressure legislators to vote against it. Lawmakers can resist that pressure if we share stories from the frontlines of patient care—irrefutable evidence that safe staffing saves lives. If you agree that out-of-ratio assignments are dangerous click here.