Press Release:
Press Release
News Article March 2005
OAKLAND, Calif., March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- A Sacramento Superior Court Judge issued a tentative order late Thursday to vacate Gov. Schwarzenegger's illegal emergency order suspending key portions of California's first in the nation law mandating minimum RN-to-patient hospital ratios.
A hearing on the tentative ruling will be held Friday morning at 10 a.m. in the courtroom of Judge Judy Holzer Hersher with oral arguments by CNA, which filed the lawsuit against the emergency regulation, and representatives of the Attorney General and hospital lobbying arm who have opposed the lawsuit.
Subsequent to the hearing, the judge will issue a final order. The final decision, if it follows the tentative order, would be an injunction against Gov. Schwarzenegger. It would immediately require hospitals to restore compliance with the ratio law in emergency rooms and immediately implement ratios of no more than one RN for every five patients in general medical units as they were supposed to do in January under the law suspended by the governor.
When: Friday, March 4
Where: Sacramento Superior Court, 720 9th St.
Times: Court hearing, 10 a.m., Dept. 16
CNA press conference, 12 noon
"This tentative ruling is monumental news for all California patients and families who need hospital care," said CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro. "It orders hospitals to make patient safety their top priority -- not the lust of some corporate executives for greater profits -- and it tells Gov. Schwarzenegger that he has no authority to overturn legislation to protect the public simply to please his corporate donors."
At the heart of the order is the judge's dismissal of the key pretexts cited by the governor, using arguments supplied by his corporate hospital allies -- the nursing shortage, hospital economic woes, and hospital closures.
The governor and his administration may not overturn the ratio law on the basis of "perceived nursing shortages or conflicting economic interests," the tentative order declares. "Such considerations are inconsistent with the fundamental purposes of the (ratio) statute to ensure that nurses be 'accessible and available to meet the needs of patients," the order reads.
Regarding hospital closures, the judge castigates the Department of Health Services for the flimsy evidence it presented. "DHS does not even contend that the 'reports' of hospital closures are true. To the contrary, DHS admits that 'it does not have data to support or refute these and other claims that have been made about problems caused or exacerbated by the current nurse-to-patient ratios."
Additionally, the tentative ruling sharply reprimands the administration for the use of an emergency regulation to suspend key portions of the ratio law.
"The determination of 'emergency' is arbitrary and capricious and entirely lacking in evidentiary support," the judge declares.
"This order should send a strong signal to this governor to end his flagrant efforts to accumulate power at the expense of the legislature and the public," said DeMoro.
"He has used emergency orders to usurp the role of the legislature to enact laws, sought to abolish independent boards and commissions in an effort to deregulate public oversight, and is cynically exploiting the initiative process through corporate-funded ballot measures that seek to avoid the legislative process," DeMoro noted.
"It's time for this governor to start respecting the Constitution," DeMoro said.
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