This bill establishes the Maine Quality Care Act to ensure adequate direct care registered nurse staffing assignments in health care facilities, including hospitals, freestanding emergency departments and ambulatory surgical facilities, and critical access hospitals to provide safe and effective patient care. It establishes minimum staffing requirements for direct care registered nurses based on patient care unit and patient needs, specifies the method to calculate a health care facility's compliance with the staffing requirements, protects direct care registered nurses from retaliation and includes notice, record-keeping and enforcement requirements. The bill also directs the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a process for critical access hospitals to request flexibility regarding the minimum staffing requirements.

Statutes affected:
Bill Text LD 1281, SP 509: 22.1817