Illinois Administrative Code › Title 77 - PUBLIC HEALTH › Part 255 - HOSPITAL REPORT CARD CODE › Section 255.150 - Staffing Levels

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
a) The number
			 of registered professional nurses, licensed practical nurses, and other nursing
			 personnel assigned to each patient care unit shall be consistent with the types
			 of nursing care needed by the patients and the capabilities of the staff.
			 Patients on each unit shall be evaluated near the end of each change of shift
			 by criteria developed by the nursing service. There shall be staffing schedules
			 reflecting actual nursing personnel required for the hospital and for each
			 patient unit. Staffing patterns shall reflect consideration of nursing goals,
			 standards of nursing practice, and the needs of the patients. (Section 15(a) of
			 the Act)
b) Current nursing staff
			 schedules shall be available upon request at each patient care unit. Each
			 schedule shall list the daily assigned nursing personnel and average daily
			 census for the unit. (Section 15(b) of the Act) The schedules shall be provided
			 to the public for inspection in accordance with subsection (h) of this Section
			 by providing a hard copy of the schedule, which may be in the form of
			 scheduling logs, schedule postings, print outs of electronic screens, and
			 sign-up sheets, but shall not contain information identifying a patient,
			 employee, licensed nurse, or other licensed professional. Hospitals may also
			 make schedules available by other means in addition to the hard copy format.
			 The average daily census that must be referenced on each prospective schedule
			 should reflect the unit's average daily census from the prior fiscal year
			 data.
c) Hospitals and the
			 Department shall notify the public of the right to access nurse staffing
			 information and provide information for obtaining nurse staffing information.
			 The Department shall include this information on its web site. Hospitals shall
			 provide this information through one or more communication channels, for
			 example, disseminate patient education materials or include information on
			 obtaining nurse staffing information on the hospital web site.
d) The actual nurse staffing assignment
			 roster for each patient care unit shall be available upon request at the
			 patient care unit for the effective date of that roster. (Section 15(b) of the
			 Act) The actual nurse staffing assignment rosters will be provided to the
			 public for inspection in accordance with subsection (h) of this Section by
			 providing a hard copy of the roster. Hospitals may also make rosters available
			 by other means in addition to the hard copy format. Hospitals shall have the
			 ability to satisfy requests for the current rosters or schedules by providing
			 the information at each unit. Requests for non-current rosters or schedules may
			 be satisfied by directing the requestor from the unit to a hospital location
			 where the information is kept for the purpose of providing information to the
			 public.
e) All records required
			 under this Section, including anticipated staffing schedules and the methods to
			 determine and adjust staffing levels, shall be made available to the public
			 upon request. (Section 15(c) of the Act) Methods for determining and adjusting
			 staffing levels may be contained in hospital policies and procedures,
			 administrative regulations, staff plans, accreditation standards, collective
			 bargaining agreements and commercially developed patient acuity tools and
			 protocols. Nothing in this Part requires hospitals to adopt any particular
			 staffing level methodology. This information shall be made available to the
			 public for inspection as provided in subsection (h) of this Section at a
			 central location or at specific patient care units.
f) All records required under Section 15 of
			 the Act shall be maintained by the facility for no less than 5 years. (Section
			 15(d) of the Act)
g) Requests for
			 information under this Section may be communicated to the hospital by any
			 reasonable means, including, but not limited to, written, telephone or on-site
			 inquiries. Hospitals shall be prepared to receive requests and respond
			 accordingly as outlined in subsection (h) of this Section. Hospitals may
			 require these requests to be made in writing in order to document the specifics
			 of each request. If individual hospitals choose to require requests to be made
			 in writing, the hospitals shall then develop a simple form that will fulfill
			 this writing requirement.
h) Copies
			 of schedules, rosters, or other nurse staffing records made available to the
			 public must not contain information identifying a patient, employee, licensed
			 nurse, or other licensed professional. Information required to be made
			 available to the public under this Section shall be made available as follows:
1) For requests related to an individual
			 person's pending or current inpatient hospital stay:
A) The current nursing staff schedule may be
			 requested at any time and shall be made available within two hours after the
			 request.
B) The current actual
			 nurse staffing assignment roster may be requested at any time and shall be made
			 available within 2 hours after the request during normal business hours during
			 the week and within 4 hours on weekends and evening hours.