§ 2805-t. Clinical staffing committees and disclosure of nursing\nquality indicators. 1. Legislative intent. The legislature hereby finds\nand declares:\n (a) Research demonstrates that nurses play a critical role in\nimproving patient safety and quality of care;\n (b) Appropriate staffing of general hospital personnel, including\nregistered nurses available for patient care, assists in reducing\nerrors, complications and adverse patient care events, improves staff\nsafety and satisfaction, and reduces incidences of workplace injuries;\n (c) Health care professional, technical, and support staff comprise\nvital components of the patient care team, bringing their particular\nskills and services to ensuring quality patient care;\n (d) Ensuring sufficient staffing of general hospital personnel,\nincluding registered nurses, is an urgent public policy priority in\norder to protect patients and support greater retention of registered\nnurses and safer working conditions; and\n (e) It is the public policy of the state to promote evidence-based\nnurse staffing standards and increase transparency of health care data\nand decision making based on the data.\n 2. Clinical staffing committee. (a) Each general hospital licensed\npursuant to this article shall establish and maintain a clinical\nstaffing committee, either by creating a new committee or assigning the\nfunctions of the clinical staffing committee to an existing committee,\nno later than January first, two thousand twenty-two.\n (b) Where a collective bargaining agreement provides for a staffing\ncommittee, the required functions of the clinical staffing committee\nestablished pursuant to this section shall be incorporated into that\ncommittee. Any staffing or non-staffing committees established by a\ncollective bargaining agreement, shall continue to function in\naccordance with the terms of the agreement, and the clinical staffing\ncommittee established by this section shall not limit or otherwise\nsupplant the collective bargaining agreement.\n (c) At least one-half of the members of the clinical staffing\ncommittee shall be registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and\nancillary members of the frontline team currently providing or\nsupporting direct patient care and up to one-half of the members shall\nbe selected by the general hospital administration and shall include but\nnot be limited to the chief financial officer, the chief nursing\nofficer, and patient care unit directors or managers or their designees.\nThe selection of the registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and\nancillary frontline team members of the committee shall be according to\ntheir respective collective bargaining agreements if there is one in\neffect at the general hospital for their bargaining unit. If there is no\napplicable collective bargaining agreement, the members of the clinical\nstaffing committee who are registered nurses, licensed practical nurses,\nand ancillary members providing direct patient care shall be selected by\ntheir peers. Ancillary members of the frontline team on the committee\nshall include but are not limited to patient care technicians, certified\nnursing assistants, other non-licensed staff assisting with nursing or\nclerical tasks, and unit clerks.\n 3. Employee participation. Participation in the clinical staffing\ncommittee by a general hospital employee shall be on scheduled work time\nand compensated at the appropriate rate of pay. Clinical staffing\ncommittee members shall be fully relieved of all other work duties\nduring meetings of the committee and shall not have work duties added or\ndisplaced to other times as a result of their committee\nresponsibilities.\n 4. Primary responsibilities. Primary responsibilities of the clinical\nstaffing committee shall include the following functions:\n (a) Development and oversight of implementation of an annual clinical\nstaffing plan. The clinical staffing plan shall include specific\nstaffing for each
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