Will Harm Patient Safety HB 859 would impose dangerous constraints on facility staffing. Instead of enhancing patient safety, the mandates in HB 859 can expose our patients to unnecessary risk. Illinois hospitals respect and value the views of nurses.
Nurses are the foundation for providing care to hospital patients.
With the severe shortage of nurses, hospitals are doing everything possible to meet their legitimate concerns. However SB 859, as proposed by the nurses union, is the wrong approach. It will impose intrusive government regulation that will jeopardize quality, increase health care costs, and reduce access to care. Overtime means any time in excess of the predetermined shift, not to exceed 12 hours, or 40 hours per week. HB 859 grants these employees immunity for abandoning their patients.