MN SF2182

All Minnesota hospitals must adopt and implement staffing plans by July 1, 2013, establishing maximum patient assignments for direct care registered nurses by unit to ensure patient safety.

Assignment limits range from 1:1 (operating rooms, trauma units, unstable patients) to 1:6 (postpartum/well-baby units), with hospitals required to increase staffing if committees determine lower limits necessary based on patient acuity and nursing intensity.

Each hospital must establish an RN Staffing for Patient Safety Committee by July 1, 2012, with at least half the membership being direct care nurses, to assess staffing problems, develop staffing levels, and conduct semiannual evaluations.

Direct care registered nurses may refuse assignments they determine unsafe due to patient acuity and nursing intensity without disciplinary action, and hospitals must make shift-to-shift staffing adjustments as needed.

The commissioner may suspend, revoke, or place conditions on hospital licenses for failure to develop staffing plans, and may sanction hospitals for noncompliance with established staffing levels.