Section 3727.52. Duties of nursing care committee

A hospital-wide nursing care committee convened pursuant to section 3727.51 of the Revised Code shall do both of the following:

(A) If one exists, evaluate the hospital's current nursing services staffing plan;

(B) Recommend a nursing services staffing plan that is, at a minimum, consistent with current standards established by private accreditation organizations or governmental entities and addresses all of the following:

(1) The selection, implementation, and evaluation of minimum staffing levels for all inpatient care units that ensure that the hospital has a staff of competent nurses with the specialized skills needed to meet patient needs in accordance with evidence-based safe nurse staffing standards;

(2) The complexity of complete care, assessment on patient admission, volume of patient admissions, discharges and transfers, evaluation of the progress of a patient's problems, the amount of time needed for patient education, ongoing physical assessments, planning for a patient's discharge, assessment after a change in patient condition, and assessment of the need for patient referrals;

(3) Patient acuity and the number of patients for whom care is being provided;

(4) The need for ongoing assessments of a unit's patients and its nursing staff levels;

(5) The hospital's policy for identifying additional nurses who can provide direct patient care when patients' unexpected needs exceed the planned workload for direct care staff.

Effective Date: 2008 HB346 09-12-2008