Bill > HB624

This bill, the Safe Staffing Act of 2026, requires certain hospitals in Maryland to establish and maintain clinical staffing committees and implement clinical staffing plans to ensure adequate patient care. These committees, composed of a specific number of managers and employees depending on the hospital's bed count, will be responsible for finalizing a clinical staffing plan. The chief nursing executive will initially draft this plan, which must then be reviewed and approved by the committee. When developing these plans, committees must consider factors such as existing staffing levels, patient needs, skill mix, and compliance with standards set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the hospital's accreditation body. Hospitals must implement their finalized clinical staffing plans annually by July 1, starting in 2028, and provide these plans to staff upon request. The bill also clarifies that these requirements do not force hospitals to take actions inconsistent with CMS conditions of participation or their accrediting body's standards.