Bill > S2878

This bill establishes minimum staffing ratios for certified nurse aides (CNAs), who provide direct care to residents in nursing homes, by changing the existing law to require one CNA for every eight residents during the day shift, one for every ten residents during the evening shift, and one for every sixteen residents during the night shift, replacing the previous ratios of one CNA to six, nine, and fourteen residents respectively. The bill also clarifies that any increase in resident numbers allows nursing homes a nine-shift grace period before needing to adjust CNA staffing, and that calculations for these ratios will be rounded up to the next whole number if the result is fifty-one hundredths or higher, based on the midnight census, while explicitly stating that this does not affect other required staffing levels or prevent nursing homes from exceeding these minimums. The Commissioner of Health is tasked with creating the necessary rules and regulations to implement these changes, which will take effect on the first day of the fourth month after enactment.