Kaiser Nurses Victory:
Safe Staffing Ratios

December 2002
by Richard Bermack

Yes, hard work and dedication can pay off. Dragon readers may remember when Kaiser Sunset Hospital was about to close. Staffing levels were so low that nurses questioned whether they could fulfill their responsibilities to their patients. Nurses were leaving in droves. Now all that has changed thanks to a dedicated campaign by the SEIU Nurse Alliance and Local 535 nurses such as Leila Valdivia, Bebs Nonato, and Rhonda Goode with the support of field staff Bob McCloskey. “Kaiser Sunset is now in the process of hiring nurses at an unprecedented rate,” states Goode. “The hospital has agreed to reach staffing levels of one nurse for every four patients in the medical/surgery unit. The hospital has already hired 250 nurses this year, and that is with a nursing shortage. Our turnover rate is 3% per year at Kaiser Sunset, the national hospital average is 18% to 25%. Kaiser’s director of nurses at Sunset even testified in support of the SEIU ratios at the state Department of Health Services hearings,” she smiles.

As a result of the labor/management partnership and years of effort by Local 535, Kaiser has agreed to minimum staffing ratios that are better than the new state-mandated ratios. They agreed to minimum ratios of one-to-three in telemetry, step-down, and pediatrics units, and one-to-four in medical/surgical units. Safe ratios were also agreed upon in postpartum, labor and delivery, and other units that do not already have state-mandated ratios.

On January 1, California will require one-to-six ratios in medical/surgical units and one-to-five ratios in step-down units for all hospitals. Kaiser’s agreement on safe staffing will improve patient care and the recruitment and retention of registered nurses. The goal is to implement the new ratios by January 1, 2003.

Ever since California became the first state in the nation to require minimum hospital staffing standards in 1999, the SEIU Nurse Alliance has been mobilizing around the state to encourage the DHS to establish ratios that would help ensure quality patient care. The alliance conducted surveys, consulted with nurses, and researched patient-to-staffing ratios to make sure the proposed ratios would assure safe optimal patient care. The ratios are an important step in reversing the downward trend in the medical industry, a major victory for nurses and the community.