Nurses’ Win on Staffing Affirmed

A Sacramento judge ruled Friday that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger illegally suspended a law requiring more nurses in California hospitals.

The governor arbitrarily proclaimed a healthcare emergency with flimsy evidence, said the decision by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Judy Holzer Hersher, affirming a preliminary ruling she made Thursday.

The decision hands the California Nurses Assn., one of Schwarzenegger’s fiercest critics, a key political victory. The group sued the governor in December to overturn an emergency order he signed last year.

Unless there is an appeal, which the Schwarzenegger administration Friday said it would file, California hospitals must have one nurse for every five patients in medical-surgery wards.

In November, Schwarzenegger signed an emergency order suspending a law requiring an increase this year in nurse-to-patient ratios from 1 to 6 to 1 to 5. The governor also said emergency rooms need not meet minimum ratios if there were a “heathcare emergency.”

The judge said Schwarzenegger did not have the right to unilaterally suspend the law, which she noted was designed to protect patient safety. She said the governor offered no evidence that hospitals would be harmed by the new ratios.

“In sum, the determination of ‘emergency’ is arbitrary and capricious and entirely lacking in evidentiary support,” the judge wrote. She said her ruling should go into effect immediately, even if there were an appeal.

California hospitals object to the new requirements, saying they are under financial pressure and that adding nurses could lead to closures. They blamed increased financial pressure from the managed-care industry, a large number of uninsured patients and low reimbursement for treating Medi-Cal patients.