SB 596: Health facilities: administrative penalties.

This bill aims to amend the existing health and safety code to increase administrative penalties for health facilities that fail to meet nurse-to-patient ratios. Administrative penalties will increase from $15,000 for the first violation to $30,000 for the second and subsequent violations. A hospital can avoid penalties if it demonstrates that it had met the required staffing levels, had unpredictable and uncontrollable staffing fluctuations, made prompt efforts to maintain required staffing levels, and immediately used its on-call list of nurses and the charge nurse. The bill defines "on-call list" to clarify that contacting licensed nurses not scheduled to be on call is not considered exhausting the list. Violations on separate days will be treated as separate violations.