What’s happening: Last week, CHA submitted recommended staff ratios for acute psychiatric hospitals (PDF) to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), urging the state to require a multi-disciplinary care team approach including registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, psychiatric technicians, and mental health workers.
What else to know: CHA’s recommendations — developed by a task force of leaders from more than two dozen hospitals — follow CDPH’s April 29 announcement that it would promulgate long-awaited regulations following reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Although the regulations would apply only to hospitals licensed as free-standing acute psychiatric hospitals — of which there are currently 32 among CHA member hospitals — CHA is urging CDPH to consider the importance of protecting their viability and sustainability as it develops the new staffing requirements given the severe shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds in California.
CDPH’s new public information web page shares information about the regulations and includes documents submitted by CHA and other stakeholders. The Legislature will give CDPH the authority to promulgate these as “emergency” regulations, most likely by approving budget trailer bill language recently released by the Newsom administration.
