Nurse ratio bill advances to DC Council's health committee

A bill that would require minimum staffing for nurses in D.C. hospitals was approved by the D.C. Council's business committee Tuesday and will now advance to the health committee for consideration. Under the proposed legislation, acute-care and psychiatric hospitals would be required to keep a certain ratio of nurses on duty for patients at all times under threat of a $25,000 a day penalty. The rules range from a 1:1 ratio in the operating room to a 1:6 ratio in behavioral health units. A similar measure floundered in the health committee in 2013. But earlier this year, council chairman Phil Mendelson revived the legislation