WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Lois Capps introduced legislation today aiming to require health care facilities to adopt nurse staffing levels sufficient to promote high quality patient care.

The Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act would require Medicare-participating hospitals to implement staffing systems that ensure a certain number of registered nurses on each shift and in each unit of the hospital.

Capps, D-Santa Barbara, co-authored HR 4138 with Ginny Brown-Waite, D, Florida. Capps' district covers parts of San Luis Obispo County.

“This legislation encourages nurses and hospitals to work together to make sure the right number of nurses are there to provide the excellent care that each and every patient deserves,” Capps said in a prepared statement.

California already has some of the strictest nursing staffing ratios in the nation.

###