Quality care and best patient outcomes depend on appropriate staffing in hospitals.

In 2021, nurses and patients secured a hard-won victory with the passage of the state Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act. The law, among other provisions, sets up safe and reasonable staffing ratios, including one nurse for every two patients in critical care and intensive care.

But New York City hospitals routinely flout the law. Members of the Federation of Nurses/UFT at NYU Langone-Brooklyn and Staten Island University Hospital South have filed nearly 300 complaints with the state Department of Health over the past two years.The department, by its own admission, has made determinations in only a handful. Despite repeated requests from the union, Department of Health officials have failed to adequately explain what their process is for investigating complaints.

The UFT and the Federation of Nurses/UFT wrote a letter to the Department of Health in May to demand action. And on June 3, the union launched a TV ad in Albany accusing the state of putting patients at risk by not enforcing the safe staffing law.

Nurse-to-patient ratios are set by medical professionals based on patient care needs. When hospitals cut corners on staffing to lower costs and increase profits, patients suffer.