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Legislative record

SB 596STATE · CaliforniaIntroduced

Health facilities: administrative penalties.

Voted 10/13/2025View source

Summary

Existing law provides for the licensure of various health facilities, including general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals, by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires the department to adopt regulations that establish minimum, specific, and numerical licensed nurse-to-patient ratios by licensed nurse classification and by hospital unit for all general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals. Existing law requires the department to assess an administrative penalty of $15,000 for the first violation and $30,000 for the second and each subsequent violation if the department determines that a specified health facility has violated nurse-to-patient ratios, as specified. Under existing law, an acute general hospital is not subject to this administrative penalty if the hospital demonstrates it has met specified requirements, including that any fluctuation in required staffing levels was unpredictable and uncontrollable, prompt efforts were made to maintain required staffing levels, and the hospital immediately used and subsequently exhausted the hospital's on-call list of nurses and the charge nurse. Existing law specifies that multiple violations found on the same inspection survey constitute a single violation for purposes of determining whether the violation was a first, 2nd, or subsequent violation. This bill would define "on-call list" for the above purpose and would specify that a hospital contacting, or attempting to contact, licensed nurses who are not scheduled to be on call and who are not assigned to a float pool for the unit and shift where an alleged violation occurred is not considered as exhausting an on-call list. The bill would require the department to treat violations on separate days as separate violations.

Digest published by the state legislature, retrieved via Open States. Heard is not affiliated with either.

Roll-call record

How representatives voted

72 yea·28 nay

Docket history

Action history

  1. 10/13/2025Approved by the Governor.
  2. 10/13/2025Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 773, Statutes of 2025.
  3. 9/23/2025Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
  4. 9/12/2025In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
  5. 9/12/2025Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 21. Noes 10. Page 2973.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
  6. 9/11/2025Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 48. Noes 19. Page 3318.) Ordered to the Senate.
  7. 9/3/2025Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
  8. 9/2/2025Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading.
  9. 8/29/2025From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 10. Noes 4.) (August 29).
  10. 8/20/2025August 20 set for first hearing. Placed on APPR. suspense file.