Existing law provides for the licensure of various health facilities, including general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals, by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires the department to adopt regulations that establish minimum, specific, and numerical licensed nurse-to-patient ratios by licensed nurse classification and by hospital unit for all general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals. Existing law requires the department to assess an administrative penalty of $15,000 for the first violation and $30,000 for the second and each subsequent violation if the department determines that a specified health facility has violated nurse-to-patient ratios, as specified. Under existing law, an acute general hospital is not subject to this administrative penalty if the hospital demonstrates it has met specified requirements, including that any fluctuation in required staffing levels was unpredictable and uncontrollable, prompt efforts were made to maintain required staffing levels, and the hospital immediately used and subsequently exhausted the hospital's on-call list of nurses and the charge nurse. Existing law specifies that multiple violations found on the same inspection survey constitute a single violation for purposes of determining whether the violation was a first, 2nd, or subsequent violation.
California SB 596 (20252026) — Health facilities: administrative penalties.
Existing law provides for the licensure of various health facilities, including general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals, by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires the department to adopt regulations that establish minimum, specific, and numerical licensed nurse-to-patient ratios by licensed nurse classification and by hospital unit for all general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals. Existing law requires the department to assess an administrative penalty of $15,000 for the first violation and $30,000 for the second and each subsequent violation if the department determines that a specified health facility has violated nurse-to-patient ratios, as specified. Under existing law, an acute general hospital is not subject to this administrative penalty if the hospital demonstrates it has met specified requirements, including that any fluctuation in required staffing levels was unpredictable and uncontrollable, prompt efforts were made to maintain required staffing levels, and the hospital immediately used and subsequently exhausted the hospital's on-call list of nurses and the charge nurse. Existing law specifies that multiple violations found on the same inspection survey constitute a single violation for purposes of determining whether the violation was a first, 2nd, or subsequent violation.
Version chain
The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
Unfinished Business SB596 Menjivar Concurrence — 21–10 (pass) · upper
Placed on suspense file — 7–0 (pass) · upper
Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — 8–2 (pass) · upper
Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — 12–2 (pass) · lower
3rd Reading — 24–10 (pass) · upper
SB 596 Menjivar Senate Third Reading By Schiavo — 48–19 (pass) · lower
Do pass as amended. — 10–4 (pass) · lower
Do pass — 5–1 (pass) · upper
Sponsors
Menjivar — primary (person)
Timeline
The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
2025-02-20 Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. introduction, reading-1
2025-02-21 From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 23.
2025-03-05 Referred to Com. on HEALTH. referral-committee
2025-03-27 From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee
2025-04-08 Set for hearing April 23.
2025-04-24 From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 2. Page 868.) (April 23). amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
2025-04-28 Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee
2025-05-02 Set for hearing May 12.
2025-05-12 May 12 hearing: Placed on APPR. suspense file.
2025-05-16 Set for hearing May 23.
2025-05-23 From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 1. Page 1205.) (May 23). committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
2025-05-23 Read second time. Ordered to third reading. reading-1, reading-2
2025-06-04 Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 24. Noes 10. Page 1510.) Ordered to the Assembly. passage, reading-1, reading-3
2025-06-05 In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. reading-1
2025-06-16 Referred to Com. on HEALTH. referral-committee
2025-07-01 July 8 hearing postponed by committee.
2025-07-03 From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee
2025-07-16 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 12. Noes 2.) (July 15). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee
2025-08-20 August 20 set for first hearing. Placed on APPR. suspense file.
2025-08-29 From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 10. Noes 4.) (August 29). amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
2025-09-02 Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading. amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2
2025-09-03 Read second time. Ordered to third reading. reading-1, reading-2
2025-09-11 Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 48. Noes 19. Page 3318.) Ordered to the Senate. passage, reading-1, reading-3
2025-09-12 In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
2025-09-12 Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 21. Noes 10. Page 2973.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable
2025-09-23 Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
2025-10-13 Approved by the Governor. executive-signature
2025-10-13 Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 773, Statutes of 2025. became-law
Source
OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/c6a50819-aede-4305-b53e-24f775f52184. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).
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